Struggling on serve and failing to dominate against a 148th-ranked Swiss qualifier playing in her first Grand Slam tournament on Tuesday, Williams labored to a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Amra Sadikovic – the 80th match win of her Wimbledon career.
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What it means: Williams is into round two, where she will face another American in Christina McHale.
Rains hit London late in the afternoon, delaying the matches not on Centre Court.
“Zero”, Mouratoglou said Tuesday at Wimbledon after watching Williams win her first-round match.
“I never underestimate anyone”.
However, not everyone gave her the royal seal of approval.
Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka was far from his best, with his groundstrokes uncharacteristically erratic, but his fearsome one-handed backhand and experience were enough to see off the 18-year-old making his tournament debut.
“For every negative comments, there’s a million good comments, ” Williams said.
The veteran 13th seed’s power undid the Dane, who had been seeking her first win at a grand slam this year after being dumped out of the Australian Open in the first round and missing the French Open due to injury. It’s also the most accurate description of her present state as she reboots her drive to equal Steffi Graf’s record 22 Grand Slam singles titles. She could have already done it winning Australian Open or Roland Garros : “I think more or less about winning Australia”.
Among the top women, No. 13 Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated unseeded Caroline Wozniacki, a former No. 1 who hasn’t won a match at a major in 2016; and No. 27 CoCo Vandeweghe of the US had little trouble getting past Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 7-6 (3) under the roof in the day’s last match. “When he’s playing like that, we all know what he can do, what he’s capable of.I’m ready to have fun out there with him”. Del Potro made the second round by beating France’s Stephane Robert 6-1, 7-5, 6-0.
Sixth seed Roberta Vinci recovered from a second-set blip to beat Alison Riske 6-2 5-7 6-3, while British wildcard Tara Moore beat Alison Van Uytvanck to reach the second round for the first time at the All England Club. “I’m just going to take the punches I’m getting and just try and learn from it and try and move forward”. She plays an old school grass court game. “From this match, you know, I think I can’t really just afford to play some sloppy points and sloppy games against such great players”.
“I felt like it was a solid start to go in the right direction”, Serena would say later, in the middle of this year when way too much has gone wrong for her.
Second up on Centre Court is Andy Murray, the world number two and 2013 champion who tackles compatriot Liam Broady.
Broady, still sporting the beard that caused a stir when he won a round a year ago, contributed to some eye-catching rallies but landed few telling blows as Murray raced away.
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They celebrated their renewed partnership with Murray claiming a record fifth Queen’s Club title on the eve of Wimbledon. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has ranked her world No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions.
