Murray, Djokovic in hot starts
LONDON—It had been, famously, more than 75 years since a British man arrived at Wimbledon as the defending champion.
So Andy Murray took a moment to take in the sights and sounds Monday at Centre Court as 15,000 spectators, including Shaquille O’Neal up in the Royal Box, rose to greet him with a raucous standing ovation.
The other player, 105th-ranked David Goffin of Belgium, was little more than a bystander for all of the proceedings, which ended a little more than two hours after they began with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 win for Murray.
“I was pretty nervous before the match,” said Murray, who last year became the first Briton since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the nation’s prestigious tennis tournament.
The man he beat in last year’s final, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, won in similarly easy fashion on Day 1, taking the first 11 games en route to beating 56th-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.
All in all, it was a relatively quiet start to a tournament that a year ago was as tumultuous as ever, including exits by the end of the second round for past champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. That trio, along with five-time champion and No. 1 seed Serena Williams, play their opening matches Tuesday.
Williams’ older sister Venus won Monday, besting Maria-Teresa TorroFlor of Spain, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2—her first victory at Wimbledon since 2011.
But there were losses for 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur, No. 18 Sloane Stephens and No. 27 Garbine Muguruza, the 20-year-old Spaniard who shocked Serena Williams in the second round of the French Open last month.
Three seeded men lost, too: No. 18 Fernando Verdasco to Aussie Marinko Matosevic, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; No. 25 Andrea Seppi to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4; and No. 31Vasek Pospisil to Dutchman Robin Haase, 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.