Serena Williams hadn’t won in so long, she said she couldn’t even remember the feeling.

The 23-time grand slam singles champion picked up her first victory since the 2021 French Open on Monday, beating Nuria Parrizas-Diaz 6-3 6-4 at the WTA tournament in Toronto.

“I’m just happy to get a win. It’s been a very long time, I forgot what that felt like,” Williams said.

It’s just the second tournament of the season for 40-year-old Williams, who returned to competition at Wimbledon just over a month ago but fell in the first round to Harmony Tan.

Before then, she last competed at the 2021 Wimbledon tournament, where she retired in the middle of her first match due to a torn hamstring suffered after slipping on the grass surface.

Williams, who will turn 41 at the end of September, will next face either 12th-ranked Belinda Bencic or Tereza Martincova.

Williams has won this tournament three times and reached the final in her last appearance at the hardcourt event in 2019, losing to Bianca Andreescu when she was forced to stop because of injury.

“I feel good, I felt like I competed well today. I think that’s what I needed to do, is just compete,” she said.

“Mentally, I’m getting there. I’m not where I normally am [or] where I want to be. Any match I play, whether I win or lose, helps me.

“I haven’t played a lot in the last year, [even] two years. I think that helps me physically. I feel much better in practice, it’s just getting that to the court. Literally, I’m the kind of person [where] it takes one or two things and then it clicks.”

In other opening-round action, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez made her return to the court with a 6-4 6-7 (7-2) 6-3 win over Australian Storm Sanders.

Fernandez was back in action for the first time since suffering a stress fracture in her foot during a quarter-final loss to Martina Trevisan on May 31. The 13th-ranked Fernandez will next play Brazil’s Beatriz Maia on Wednesday.

Elena Rybakina, who followed her Wimbledon triumph with a first-round exit at San Jose last week, beat Czech Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-7(7-3) 6-1 for her first win as a grand slam champion.

Former world No.1 Simona Halep who retired from her second-round match last week in Washington due to illness, needed just 61 minutes to secure a 6-0 6-2 win over Croatia’s Donna Vekic.

Sloane Stephens defeated Sofia Kenan in three sets, 6-2, 6-7(7-5) 7-5, in a three-hour match that was interrupted twice by rain.