The top women were in a big hurry at Wimbledon on Wednesday. So was Roger Federer.
The three-time defending men's champion routed Tim Henman 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, winning 11 straight games at one stretch to move into the third round and extend his record grass-court winning streak to 43 matches.
Federer, who took 85 minutes to dismantle Henman on Centre Court, looks untouchable as he bids to become the third man in the Open era to win four straight Wimbledon titles. He dropped only seven games in his first-round win on Tuesday over Richard Gasquet, and said he's never played so well this early in the tournament.
"I've had a different kind of a draw, where people are expecting me to struggle more," Federer said.
"That I came through that convincing obviously gives me a lot of confidence. Sends out maybe a little bit of a message for the other players," he said.
Defending women's champ Venus Williams, former winner Maria Sharapova and top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo swept their first-round matches in less than an hour -- losing only three games among them.
Williams crushed 103rd-ranked American Bethanie Mattek 6-1, 6-0, in 51 minutes on Centre Court; Sharapova took the same amount of time to dispatch Anna Smashnova 6-2, 6-0, and Mauresmo beat Croatian qualifier Ivana Abramovic 6-0, 6-0, in 39 minutes.
Second-seeded Kim Clijsters needed even less time to reach the third round: She advanced by walkover after her opponent, Viktoriya Kutuzova, pulled out with a viral infection. No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Russia's Ekaterina Bychkova 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes.
The one-sided trend continued late in the day with former champion Martina Hingis downing Italy's Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-2, in 60 minutes. No. 9 Anastasia Myskina dropped just four games in a 6-0, 6-4 win over Cara Black in 51 minutes.
Andy Roddick fought for nearly three hours before overcoming Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, serving 28 aces in a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2 first-round victory.
In one of the most compelling matches of the tournament, with both players diving full length onto the grass to reach shots, the turning point came when Roddick came from 5-4 down to win the third-set tiebreaker.
"That was huge," Roddick said. "I wanted that one real bad."
Roddick then broke at love for a 3-1 lead in the fourth set, thumping his fist on his heart, and cruised the rest of the way. He saved all nine break points against him in the match, converting three of the four he earned.
The women's mismatches didn't help the push for equal prize money at Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam tournament which pays the women's singles champion less than the men. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he backs the call for equal pay.
Williams said the easy victories had "nothing to do" with the money issue.
"We aren't involved in arguing the points of time spent on court, sets played," Williams said.
"That's a moot topic. What it's really about is being treated equal as a human being," she said.
Williams overwhelmed the 21-year-old Mattek with power, pace and swinging volleys -- 26 winners in all -- and few sloppy errors.
The match featured some unusual fashion displays: Williams sported a stick-on tattoo below the front of her right shoulder, while Mattek wore knee-high socks, shorts and a tube top over a halter top.
Mattek said she bought the socks for ?10 (US$18) at Harrod's.
"I was going for kind of the soccer theme," she said.
"She looked really cute, very 70s inspired," Williams said.
Sharapova unleashed 27 winners against Smashnova, handing the 42nd-ranked Israeli her sixth straight first-round loss at the All England Club.
Mauresmo lost only 17 points against the 192nd-ranked Abramovic, who was playing in her first Grand Slam match.
On the men's side, 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt cruised past Italy's Filippo Volandri, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. The man Hewitt beat in the 2002 final, fourth-seeded David Nalbandian, defeated France's Arnaud Clement 6-4 6-4 6-3.
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