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Shaking off the disappointment of an early exit at the French Open in her last appearance on court roughly a month ago, world No. 1 Serena Williams returned to the Grand Slam stage with a resounding boom on Tuesday, defeating newly-Americanized Anna Tatishvili 6-1, 6-2 at Wimbledon.
“Who said I was over it?” Serena said of her French Open loss. “The last time I played [Tatishvili], she ended really strong. Today, she started where she left off last time. She can hit the ball really, really hard.”
Other Top 10 winners all easing into the second round in straight sets were No. 3 Simona Halep over Brazil’s Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-2; No. 4 Aggie Radwanska dismissing Romanian qualifier Andreea Mitu 6-2, 6-1; No. 5 Maria Sharapova spanking Brit wildcard Samantha Murray 6-1, 6-0; and No. 9 Angie Kerber topping the other Radwanska sister Urszula 6-2, 6-4.
“I recovered very well from the [back] injury and I can play now,” Halep said. “And this was the perfect start for me. First rounds are always difficult, but I think I played really well today. The court was beautiful, so I was enjoying every moment of it.”
Sharapova, who suffered a second round exit last year, was only looking ahead.
“I try not to dwell on what has happened in the past, whether good or bad memories,” she said. “This is a new day. It’s not a new tournament, but it’s a new opportunity. You start from scratch. And I have a great opportunity to do well here — there’s no reason I can’t turn those results around this year.”
It was a big day for upsets as six seeds were dismissed in the first round, led by Estonian Kaia Kanepi who ousted No. 7 Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-2.
Also upset-minded on Tuesday were France’s Caroline Garcia who topped No. 14 Sara Errani 2-6, 7-6(3), 7-5; Croat Donna Vekic who outlasted No. 21 Roberta Vinci 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; American Alison Riske who came from a set down to beat No. 26 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6, 7-5, 6-1; Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito who wore down No. 28 seed and multiple Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; and American qualifier Victoria Duval in her first Wimbledon main draw match, defeating No. 29 Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Additional seeded players into the second round on Tuesday were No. 11 Ana Ivanovic over fellow French Open winner Francesca Schiavone, No. 13 Eugenie Bouchard, No. 15 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 16 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 19 Sabine Lisicki, No. 20 Andrea Petkovic, No. 24 Kirsten Flipkens edging qualifier Tamira Paszek in three, No. 25 Alize Cornet winning from a set down against Anna Schmiedlova, and No. 31 Klara Koukalova over American wildcard Taylor Townsend.
Among unseeded winners of note into the second round were young American Madison Keys, young Italian Camila Giorgi, young British hope Heather Watson, and touted Swiss junior Belinda Bencic.
“I had a lot of support today — the whole crowd,” Watson said. “I had a lot of friends as well that had come to watch. And from the beginning when I walked onto the court and they said my name, the crowd was very positive and behind me the whole way. I really enjoyed playing here today and on that court. I do like that court a lot.”
Keys was feeling confident after winning her first career title on grass entering Wimbledon.
“Obviously I’m feeling pretty confident right now, especially on grass,” said the American. “I feel like I can play entire tournaments and I’m actually about to go out and win, so that’s definitely a good feeling.”
Two matches were suspended due to darkness, including Brit wildcard Tara Moore challenging veteran wildcard Vera Zvonareva, tied at one set all.
Three former All England Club champions on the men’s side, two of which were seeded, moved into the second round in decidedly different ways on Tuesday.
No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal struggled against rankings riser Martin Klizan, needing to come from a set down to beat the Slovakian 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, while No. 4 seed Roger Federer eased into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win against Italian Paolo Lorenzi.
“For me it was a solid match,” Federer said. “I served well, returned well and also tried to come forward a bit. I could do everything out there and am very pleased.”
Nadal will next meet Lukas Rosol, who upset him two years ago at Wimbledon.
“I lost because [Rosol] is a very good player and he plays very well on this surface,” Nadal said. “He’s aggressive. I need to play very well. If not, I won’t be in the third round…I’m not going to lie — when you go on the Center Court and you have lost last year in the first round and the year before in the second round, it stays on your mind.”
Four other Top 10 seeds were in action, with No. 5 Stan Wawrinka over Portugal’s Joao Sousa, No. 8 Milos Raonic topping Aussie Matthew Ebden, No. 9 John Isner subduing unheralded Brit Daniel Smethurst, and No. 10 Kei Nishikori beating Frenchman Kenny De Schepper, all in straight sets.
Three seeds exited stage right on Tuesday when Serbian Dusan Lajovic outlasted No. 28 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in five, complaining Canadian Frank Dancevic stunned No. 29 Ivo Karlovic in straights, and Uzbek Denis Istomin tamed No. 32 Dmitry Tursunov in four sets.
No. 13 seed Richard Gasquet survived a five-setter against Aussie James Duckworth to lead the remaining seeds into the second round, including No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who won a rain-resumed five-setter over Jurgen “Tuna” Melzer, No. 15 “I’m From” Jerzy Janowicz who beat Somdev Devvarman in five, No. 19 Feliciano Lopez, No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber, No. 23 Tommy Robredo, No. 24 Gael “Force” Monfils, and No. 30 Marcel Granollers who defeated Nicolas Mahut in four.
Unseeded advancements of note among the men were historic Slam upset makers Rosol and Gilles Muller, former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, Americans Jack Sock, Sam Querrey and Denis Kudla, and young Aussie hopeful Nick Kyrgios.
“It doesn’t get any better than playing out here in this tournament,” Hewitt said. “I’ve been through some tough times, some tough surgeries in the past four or five years but when you get out here, it makes it all worth it.”
Matches to look for on Wednesday at the All England Club include (1) Novak Djokovic vs. Radek “The Worm” Stepanek, (3) Andy Murray vs. U.S. collegiate star Blaz Rola, (6) Tomas Berdych vs. Aussie troublemaker Bernard Tomic, (14) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Sam Querrey, and (12) Ernests Gulbis vs. upset specialist Sergiy Stakhovsky.
WEDNESDAY WIMBLEDON SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT – 1:00PM
1. Casey Dellacqua (AUS) v Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [4]
2. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) [11] v Luke Saville (AUS)
3. Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v Radek Stepanek (CZE)
NO.1 COURT – 1:00PM
1. Andy Murray (GBR) [3] v Blaz Rola (SLO)
2. Petra Kvitova (CZE) [6] v Mona Barthel (GER)
3. Bernard Tomic (AUS) v Tomas Berdych (CZE) [6]
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