World number one Simona Halep began her bid for a first Grand Slam title with a gutsy fightback in her rain-delayed French Open first-round match.

Halep, last year’s runner-up, lost the first set before recovering to win 2-6 6-1 6-1 against American Alison Riske.

Australian Open champion and second seed Caroline Wozniacki cruised into the third round with a 6-1 6-0 win over Spain’s Georgina Garcia Perez.

Fourth seed Elina Svitolina and eighth seed Petra Kvitova also went through.

Ukraine’s Svitolina reached the last 32 with a 6-3 6-4 win over Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova while Czech star Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, beat Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena 6-0 6-4.

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Serena Williams, meanwhile, wore her ‘Black Panther’ catsuit again as she teamed up with sister Venus to beat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Miyu Kato 4-6 6-4 6-1 in the women’s doubles first round.

The 36-year-old American first wore the outfit, inspired by the Black Panther movie blockbuster, during her opening singles win on Tuesday.

Halep overcomes slow start

Two-time French Open finalist Halep has spent much of the past seven months as the world’s leading female player, despite never transferring her consistency on tour into lifting one of tennis’ most prestigious prizes.

Halep lost to unseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the Roland Garros final last year, one of six defeats in a showpiece over the past year.

But reaching a second final in Paris looked a long way off as she made a woeful start in a match which originally supposed to be played on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Romanian hit 16 unforced errors in a opening set, but then won nine of the next 10 games to take control.

Riske, who is Johanna Konta’s doubles partner, stemmed the tide by claiming the fourth game of the final set, but only managed to win another 12 points in a final set which Halep won in 28 minutes.

Halep put her sluggish start down to pre-match nerves, which she said were not caused by the extra pressure of finally landing her first major prize.

“I didn’t feel the pressure, because I know that every match is tough at this tournament, so I don’t expect anything,” she said.

“I think the nerves are really good. It means that you care about what you are doing and your desire is really big.”

Halep will face Riske’s compatriot Taylor Townsend in the second round.

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Lucky loser Marco Trungelliti hopes his drive home will have “less stress” than the 10-hour dash he made on Sunday to reach the French Open.

The Argentine, 27, drove from Barcelona to Paris with his grandmother, mother and brother to earn a first-round spot.

He beat Bernard Tomic on Monday, only to lose in straight sets against Italy’s Marco Cecchinato on Wednesday.

“It’s been a different experience with all the media,” he said. “But I enjoyed it. I’ve never been here before.”

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Trungelliti – and his 89-year-old grandmother Daphne – became the centre of attention at Roland Garros after his wife posted pictures of them, along with his mother Susanna and brother Andre, travelling and singing during their journey to the French capital.

He then described after his four-set win over Tomic that he had to tell his grandma to get out of the shower so they could leave his home in Barcelona.

The world number 190 lost in Roland Garros qualifying last week, but returned in a race to sign in as a lucky loser after Australian Nick Kyrgios pulled out with injury.

Now he will drive back to the Spanish city in a few days’ time – having earned £69,000 from his trip to Paris.

“It has been amazing because I won on Monday, if I’d come here and lost it would have been tough mentally,” he added.

“But the media attention didn’t have an impact on my second match – I just didn’t play good tennis.”

Novak Djokovic secured his place in the third round of the French Open with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-4 win over Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar.

The former world number one, 31, was given a stern workout by 21-year-old Munar despite victory in straight sets.

Djokovic, seeded 20th at Roland Garros, squandered a 5-2 lead in the first set but came through a tie-break.

Munar did not give the Serb any respite in the next two sets although Djokovic’s superiority eventually told.

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Djokovic slowly regaining confidence

Djokovic has struggled to rediscover his best form following a return to the court after elbow surgery in January.

This year he has twice lost to players ranked outside the world’s top 100 in ATP tournaments and has not won a Grand Slam since the 2016 French Open.

Munar, ranked 155th in the world, fought back in the first set but the more experienced Djokovic kept his composure to emphatically close out the tie-break 7-1.

Djokovic, a 12-time Grand Slam champion, said his confidence had been knocked since his return and was a little scrappy in the second set.

However, he showed flashes of his best in an entertaining final set to see off a spirited effort from Munar in two hours and 19 minutes.

Djokovic will face 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the fourth round after the Spaniard’s 6-4 7-5 6-3 win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.