Sloane Stephens knocks Venus Williams out of first round

Seven-time major winner Venus Williams fell at the first hurdle of the French Open as Sloane Stephens claimed an impressive straight-sets triumph.

Williams, a former world number one and seeded 15th for this tournament, has never got past the quarter-final stage at Roland Garros and Monday's defeat was the third time the American has been eliminated in the first round.

Stephens, 12 years the junior of her compatriot, is a former Australian Open semi-finalist and she showed more signs of her exciting potential here.

After falling 2-0 down in the opening set, Stephens recovered her composure and broke back immediately to quash any Williams momentum.

The remainder of the set went with serve and despite going behind in the tie-breaker, Stephens reeled off four out of five points from 4-3 down to take the set.

If the first had been a closely-fought affair, the second was anything but.

Stephens romped into a 3-0 lead, and a second break saw her move 5-1 up and serving for the match.

After wasting one match point, she made no mistake with the second to dump out Williams and book a second-round meeting with Heather Watson.