World Number 8 and winner of 20 Grand Slam titles Roger Federer made a smooth return to the Grand Slam arena as he edged past Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-2 6-4 6-3 in the first round at Roland Garros on June 1.

This was Federer’s eighth straight win against Istomin. The former world number 1 will now either face former US Open winner Marin Cilic or French wild card Arthur Rinderknecht in the second round.

Federer has not played a Grand Slam match since 2020 Australian Open and had managed only one claycourt match in the build-up to Roland Garros.

“I just felt overall much clearer, much better, Clearly also maybe the type of opponent allowed me to have many different ways to win the point,” Federer said in a post-match conference.

“I knew if I came to the net, that was an option, hitting a drop shot was always an option, taking the ball early was an option,” he added.

“I feel hopeful. As I say, you could see it today in the match, I’m feeling that here, at least this year with this weather, with these balls, I can play like on hard courts. It doesn’t feel different than the Australian Open for me coming into this tournament. Now when I’m coming to these big tournaments feeling like this, I know I’m capable of doing big things,” he added.