Murray and Nadal sail through
VENUS Williams wept at Wimbledon over the devastation of a fatal road accident, for which she is facing legal action, as Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal eased into the second round yesterday.
Williams, the 37-year-old five-time champion, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her maiden appearance at the All England Club.
But that landmark has been overshadowed by her involvement last month in a road accident near her Florida home, which resulted in the death of a 78-year-old man.
Despite the tragedy at home, Williams remained focused enough on Court One to clinch a 7-6 (9/7) 6-4 victory over Belgium’s Elise Mertens in the first round.
Defending men’s champion Murray celebrated the news that he was about to become a father again by reaching the second round.
The top seed and world No 1 downed Kazakh lucky loser Alexander Bublik 6-1 6-4 6-2, shrugging off two brief rain delays and showing little sign of the hip problem which plagued him in the build-up.
World No 2 and two-time champion Nadal secured his 850th career victory with a 6-1 6-3 6-2 demolition of Australia’s John Millman.
Fresh from winning his 10th French Open title, Nadal is just the seventh player to reach the 850-win mark, joining Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Guillermo Vilas.
Swiss fifth seed and French Open runner-up Stan Wawrinka was knocked out by Russia's Daniil Medvedev, losing 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-1.
There was lots of emotion for 2011 and 2014 women’s champion Petra Kvitova as the Czech downed Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-4.
Kvitova was playing just her eighth match since suffering a potentially career-ending hand injury fighting off a knife-wielding burglar at her home in December.
Nick Kyrgios, who beat Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014, will not get another opportunity to repeat that shock.
The combustible 20th seeded Australian was 6-3 6-4 down to France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert when he called it quits on Court Three after failing to shake off the hip injury which has plagued him in recent weeks.
Women’s second seed Simona Halep downed New Zealand qualifier Marina Erakovic 6-4 6-1.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 2-6 7-6(5) 7-6(8) 6-3.