Serena overcomes early wobble
LONDON: The cobwebs were dusted off and normal service was swiftly resumed, but for a few games at the start of her 64 6-1 victory over Margarita Gasparyan, Serena Williams looked edgy, vulnerable and nothing like a five times Wimbledon champion.
Embarking on her quest to clinch a second non-calendar year grand slam, Williams strode out on to Court One under hazy skies, but in the face of an early onslaught from her Russian opponent, she was quickly turning the air blue as her frustration levels mounted.
On paper it should have been a walkover for Williams, playing a woman without a victory on the WTA tour who was facing her first match at Wimbledon after battling through the qualifiers.
But for a brief time the form book looked in danger of being hurled out the window as Gasparyan broke in the first game and held on bravely, firing winners off both flanks with Williams shuffling uncomfortably around the court.
The American had not played a competitive game since clinching a 20th grand slam title at the French Open three weeks ago and the ring rust took six testing games to drop off.
It was always going to be hard for a woman ranked 113 to keep up the fight and Williams was in no mood to let her turn her early break into a more decisive stranglehold on the match.
The world number one saved another break point in the fourth game, before hitting back to level at 3-3 but only after she received a code violation for “an audible obscenity”. The 33-year-old broke again when Gasparyan netted a backhand to clinch the first set after 48 minutes of nip and tuck battle, but then powered away, breaking twice in the second set and crunching down a smash on match point to clinch victory.
Williams is no stranger to scares in the early stages of a grand slam, and was none too pleased to have been tested in her opening salvo.
“I would be lying if I said I want a hard match,” she told reporters as she weighed up the unexpectedly tough challenge Gasparyan had posed. “At the end of the day, I think it’s definitely good for me. But no one really wants to be in any sort of difficult match.”
The next step on Williams’s quest to hold all four majors at the same time is the 93rdranked Hungarian Timea Babos, another unknown quantity, who she has never faced before.
Novak Djokovic displayed his usual killer instinct against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, but took pity on a tiny bird on Centre Court.
The defending champion pounced at the key moments to see off a dangerous opponent 64 6-4 6-4 but was more compassionate when it came to the disorientated sparrow which seemed determined to hog the limelight. At one point in the second set Djokovic tried to coax the feathered invader on to his racket strings, to no avail.
“From where I come from, Belgrade, there’s a special sparrow bird. I believe this bird came all the way from Belgrade to help me,” Djokovic told reporters.
“I was fearing for its safety, honestly. At one point Kohlschreiber was serving at the advantage side, between the first and second serve, the bird landed close to the sideline.
“She stayed there until I won that point. So I said, be my guest, stay around, if you want.”
When
Maria
Sharapova miserably exited the French Open four weeks ago it was to a soundtrack of her coughing but the trademark scream was back at full volume on Monday when she blew past Briton Johanna Konta in the first round at Wimbledon.
Having returned to the United States to rest and recover from a virus that contributed to her fourth-round defeat by Czech Lucie Safarova, Sharapova looked revitalised as she triumphed 6-2 6-2 in the sunshine of Centre Court.
Konta, who switched allegiance from Australia three years ago, came into the match on a high after taking a couple of seeded scalps in Eastbourne last week but never looked close to derailing the fourth seed.
It is 11 years since the 17year-old Sharapova pulled off one of the great Wimbledon shocks when she blew away defending champion Serena Williams in the final and though she has been at or around the top of the game ever since, she has reached one subsequent Wimbledon final, losing to Petra Kvitova in 2011.
Fourth seed and French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-2 7-5 76, while South Africa’s Kevin Anderson overcame Lucas Pouille (France) 6-2 7-5 3-6 6-3. – Reuters