Filed under: Tennis, Wimbledon
Defending champion Serena Williams was reduced to tears as she ended a "disaster year" by sealing her place in the second round of Wimbledon with a three-set victory over Aravane Rezai.The American began day two on Centre Court with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 triumph in what was only her third appearance since lifting the SW19 trophy last year.
Williams has had to contend with the toughest 12 months of her career after first being sidelined with a foot injury suffered treading on cut on glass in a restaurant in Germany shortly after her Wimbledon triumph, before it later escalated into life-threatening blood clots.
She started sluggishly against Rezai, who broke at the first opportunity, but reeled off six of the next seven games to take the first set.
Rezai is a renowned fighter, however, and after some big hitting from the Frenchwoman the younger Williams sister eventually crumbled in game six, double faulting to hand her opponent the initiative.
However, the seventh seed was in no mood to give up her crown and she swiftly dismissed any prospect of an upset by closing out the match, dropping just one game in the final set.
COMPETITION: Win a HEAD Tennis Racquet Signed By Andy Murray
Top seed and world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki made a convincing start as she demolished Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-2 6-1.
There was a shock elsewhere in the women's draw, however, after 15th seed Jelena Jankovic slumped to a 5-7 6-4 6-3 defeat to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
In the men's draw, six-time champion Roger Federer cruised into the second round with a 7-6 (2) 6-4 6-2 victory over Mikhail Kukushkin.
The Swiss maestro required a tie-breaker to break the world No. 61's resolve in the opening set but it was plain sailing from there as the world No. 3 wrapped up a convincing victory in one hour and 42 minutes.
Next up for Federer, who has been in resurgent form of late after reaching the French Open final, will be Adrian Mannarino, who beat Ireland's Conor Niland.
He was later joined in the second round by world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who beat Jeremy Chardy 6-4 6-1 6-1, while former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, the 24th seed, defeated Flavio Cipolla 6-1 6-4 6-3.
And there was to be no repeat of last year's historic marathon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut after the big-serving American progressed in straight sets, winning 7-6 (4) 6-2 7-6 (6).
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Novak Djokovic Owen Hargreaves Paolo Maldini Patrick Vieira Paul Casey
No comments:
Post a Comment