Defending champion Petra Kvitova reached the second round at Wimbledon yesterday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, but only after surviving an early struggle.
The Czech, who became the first woman born in the 1990s to win a major when she beat Maria Sharapova in last year’s final, fought back from 3-0 and 4-1 down in the first set, before seeing off Amanmuradova, who has now lost all her five first-round appearances at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Once Kvitova had reeled off seven successive games to take the first set and lead 2-0 in the second, the 22-year-old was comfortably in control, managing to shrug off a brief rain delay at 40-40 and 5-3 in the second set.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s unbelievable to come back as defending champion,” said Kvitova, who started her title-winning campaign out on Court 15 last year. “I was nervous at the start. On grass, you never know what to expect from me.”
In the men’s singles, Japan’s Kei Nishikori earned his first ever win at Wimbledon as the 19th seed marked his return from injury with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
Nishikori had never been past the opening round in his three previous visits, losing to former champions Rafael Nadal and Lleyton Hewitt on his last two appearances, but he ended that barren run in his first match since April.
Photo: EPA
The 22-year-old is scheduled to face Andrey Kuznetsov or Florent Serra in the second round.
Nishikori made history earlier this year when he became the first Japanese man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals in 80 years after a surprise five-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but his progress suffered a setback when he was hit by a stomach injury against Fernando Verdasco in Barcelona that forced him to miss the rest of the clay-court campaign, including the French Open.
Mardy Fish also made a winning return in his first match following a procedure to address a frightening heart scare.
Photo: AFP
The world No. 12 beat Spain’s Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 7-6 (7/1) and looked comfortable moving around the court.
It was his first tournament appearance since April, when, as top seed, he fell at the first hurdle in Houston, Texas.
He had a procedure called cardiac catheter ablation in Los Angeles on May 23 to correct faulty wiring in his heart.
Photo: EPA
Fish said the arrhythmia had made it hard for him to sleep and his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.
Fish is the top American left in the draw after world No. 10 John Isner was knocked out on Monday.
No such luck for Bernard Tomic, though, as the Australian teenager’s slump continued with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 defeat against Belgian wild-card David Goffin.
Tomic, the 20th seed, arrived at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where he was a quarter-finalist last year, in the midst of a woeful run which has seen him fail to get past the second round in 11 of his past 12 tournaments.
That dispiriting sequence included withdrawing from the Wimbledon warm-up in Halle, Germany, with a stomach virus, then losing in the first round at Eastbourne last week.
On Monday, despite developing a fondness for the grass at Wimbledon, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun crashed out in the first round.
In 2010, Lu made a stunning run to the quarter-finals and last year he reached the third round. Coming off some good results in warm-up tournaments on grass, including a quarter-final appearance at the Aegon Championships in London two weeks ago, Lu anticipated another strong showing at the year’s only grass-court major, although that enthusiasm was tempered by a draw that would have pitted him against Djokovic in the second round, but he had hoped to at least get a shot at the Serb.
Instead, the world No. 56 stumbled in the first round against young American Ryan Harrison in a loss that left him “disappointed” and “dejected,” as much because of the way the match progressed rather than the result itself.
Lu got off to a strong start and seemed in control of the match, but his movement was clearly impaired by an apparent injury early in the second set and some poor volleying only set him back further in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
“I had some opportunities for winners that I didn’t handle very well and I didn’t make shots I normally make on key points. I also was nicked up a little and after my serve was broken, I got down on myself,” Lu said.
Lu’s departure meant that the only Taiwanese surviving in the singles competition was Hsieh Su-wei in the women’s competition.
Hsieh is scheduled to face world No. 75 Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France in the second round.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer arrived with his own unique brand of magic and Maria Sharapova basked in a Parisian glow as the headline acts shone in the opening day sunshine.
Federer, eyeing a record-equaling seventh Wimbledon title, limbered up with a tasty 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Spain’s Albert Ramos, a player without a single win on grass.
Federer’s 106th on the surface — a record among active players — was never in doubt.
Not even being overlooked for a Centre Court slot ruffled the majestic Swiss, who needs one more Wimbledon title to equal the seven of Pete Sampras.
“Absolutely special, because you do realize the moment you walk on to the court that it is a different place here than any other,” the 30-year-old told reporters.
Sharapova, fresh from winning the French Open and reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking, dropped only one point in the opening four games against Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova, although she was eventually forced to engage second gear in a 6-2, 6-3 victory.
The Russian faces Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round — a dangerous opponent, who reached the semi-finals in 2010 and the quarter-finals last year.
“The first one’s always tricky,” Sharapova, the darling of Wimbledon 2004, told reporters.
All eyes were on Argentine bad-boy David Nalbandian as he walked out on Court One to face Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, eight days after being defaulted in the final of the Queen’s Club warm-up tournament for booting an advertising podium and gashing the shin of a line judge.
This time the former Wimbledon finalist kept his cool despite a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 defeat.
Injury-hit Belgian Kim Clijsters, playing her farewell Wimbledon after announcing she will retire for a second time in September, showed she is still a class act when she beat Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, another former world No. 1, 6-2 6-4.
No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych, a finalist two years ago, was beaten by Latvian Ernests Gulbis 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4), while John Isner, the top-ranked American and the 11th seed, lost to Alejandro Falla of Colombia in five sets.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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