Serena Williams of the U.S gives her pre-Championships press conference at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, ahead of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, June 26, 2016.
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Five-time women’s champion Venus Williams also had a stiff test, overcoming Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Court 1.
The Broady siblings are two of 15 Brits in first round action at Wimbledon and Judy Murray feels last year’s Davis Cup win has given belief to the lower ranked players.
The world number two is ranked 233 places above Englishman Broady and the gulf in class was evident as he eased to a 6-2 6-3 6-4 victory on Centre Court.
“I felt like I couldn’t hit a victor against her today, she ran everything down and played unbelievable tennis”, the eighth-seeded Williams said.
Since the second-round defeat at Wimbledon previous year, Broady has largely been playing on the Challenger Tour and ITF Tour, one and two levels respectively below the top tier of men’s tennis.
French Open champion Garbine Muguruza had to work hard to transfer her punch on Paris clay to Wimbledon’s grass yesterday, beating Camila Giorgi 6-2 5-7 6-4 with a performance of powerful baseline tennis.
“To me, she was like – I don’t mean it in a bad way – like a monster”, Sadikovic told New York Times.
“Obviously [playing a Brit at Wimbledon] never happened before, for me anyway”, the Britain’s finest player said.
This was the fifth year in a row that he has won his first-round match at the All England Club in straight sets.
“This is probably the most unique experience in tennis playing as the defending champion in Wimbledon – untouched grass, first match, 1 o’clock Monday”, Djokovic said.
It was a huge occasion for Broady, who made Marcus Willis-style headlines on day one previous year when he came from two sets down to defeat Marinko Matosevic.
Keen to avoid a repeat of the gruelling matches at the start of the recent French Open that left him exhausted by the time he lost the final against Djokovic, Murray swept through the first set.
The Stockport player even had two chances to break the Murray serve but the 29-year-old lifted himself out of second gear to save them and clinched his first match point with a dinked forehand.
This was the first all-British meeting in the men’s singles at a Grand Slam tournament since Tim Henman beat Greg Rusedski in the first round of the US Open 10 years ago.
“She has largely got herself there through her own resources so I have a lot of time for her and the journey she has gone on to get herself there”, she added.
Serena Williams began her Wimbledon title defense with a comfortable but tentative win over Swiss qualifier Amra Sadikovic, winning 6-2, 6-4 on Centre Court.
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On paper, Murray’s draw against the world number 235 looks more straightforward, although Broady has been seen hitting with high-profile names such as Raonic and the Canadian’s coach John McEnroe this week. “Then we go from there”. Kyrgios is seeded 15th, has a loud personality and loud game, and reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2014, knocking off Rafael Nadal along the way. He’ll face Britain’s James Ward, who is ranked 177th in the world and received a wild-card entry.
