Defending champion Serena Williams silenced scream queen Michelle Larcher de Brito with a 6-0, 6-4 win in the first round of the women’s singles at Wimbledon yesterday.
Williams had warmed up for her clash with one of the loudest grunters on the women’s tour by going to a Green Day rock concert last weekend, but the world No. 1 had no need to worry about being put off by Larcher de Brito’s shrieking as she demolished the Portuguese teenager.
It is 12 months since Serena beat her sister Venus in the fourth all-Williams Wimbledon final and little has changed to suggest a different name will be on the trophy this year.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Venus was barely troubled by Rossana De Los Rios in her opening match on Monday and Serena’s potent combination of power and poise ensured Larcher de Brito was never able to recover from the American’s blistering start.
Serena, who plays Anna Chakvetadze in the second round after the Russian’s 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Andrea Petkovic, looks in the mood to win the singles’ title here for a fourth time.
She won the first eight games of the match to establish a stranglehold she was never in danger of losing despite an improved effort from her opponent in the second set.
“When I saw the draw, I thought, oh, last time I played her it was a really tough match, so I’m really glad to get through,” the top seed said.
The pair had only faced each other once before, at Stanford in 2008, when Williams won in three sets.
Elsewhere in the women’s singles, Polish seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who has reached the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the last two years, swept to a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hungary’s Melinda Czink.
Former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 19th seed from Russia, is also hoping to get past the last eight in SW19 for the first time and she cruised to a 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 victory against Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova.
Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, the 10th seed, crushed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-0 and Chinese 23rd seed Zheng Jie beat France’s Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-4.
Zheng, a semi-finalist two years ago, saw off the French player’s challenge in an hour and 39 minutes in a tough workout that will stand her in good stead to repeat her efforts of 2008.
Zheng, 26, took advantage of her better serve, although the game could easily have gone the distance against an opponent she has never faced and who is ranked 106 in the world.
The pair were level at 5-5 in the first set, with both players dropping their serve twice, when Zheng manufactured the crucial break to take the lead.
In the second set they traded service games — although Zheng saved break points in the third and ninth games — until 10th game when Zheng won the contest on the third of three match points.
In the men’s singles, US 18th seed Sam Querrey, who won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up at Queen’s Club two weeks ago, moved into the second round when Sergiy Stakhovsky, already trailing 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 2-1, was forced to pull out injured.
Querrey will play Croatian qualifier Ivan Dodig, who defeated Spain’s Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
Gilles Simon, the French 26th seed, defeated Guillermo Alcaide 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/0) to set up a meeting with Illya Marchenko, who went through after Michael Berrer retired before the third set of their match.
Austrian qualifier Martin Fischer thrashed Japan’s Go Soeda 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.
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