Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun had to battle his way into the second round of the men’s singles at Wimbledon in London yesterday.
Lu defeated Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in 2 hours, 39 minutes on Court 11.
Lu converted four of six break-point chances to set up a second-round clash with Stanislas Wawrinka, who bludgeoned his way into the second round for the first time in three years with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
Photo: AFP
The Australian Open champion has struggled at the All England Club during his career, losing his opening match five times in nine visits, but he never looked in danger of another early exit on a sun-baked Court Two.
The fiery fifth seed, who reached the semi-finals of the Queen’s Club warm-up tournament earlier this month, delighted the crowd with some sizzling forehands and backhands which proved to hot for clay-court specialist Sousa to handle.
Wawrinka looked a little frustrated with himself on occasions, but never gave Sousa the slightest glimpse of a break point as he cruised to victory.
Photo: EPA
Also advancing yesterday was Japanese 10th seed Kei Nishikori with a straight-sets win over France’s Kenny de Schepper.
The 24-year-old, who has never been past the third round at the All England Club, won 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 in 1 hour, 49 minutes in front of dozens of appreciative Japanese fans on Court 12.
The highest-ranked Japanese man in history blew his first match point, but got another after De Schepper double-faulted, and then won it when the world No. 73 shot wide.
Though De Schepper hit 20 aces to Nishikori’s eight, the Japanese played a tidier match, making just nine unforced errors to the Frenchman’s 31.
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also made it through after playing just one game.
Tsonga was leading Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 5-4 when rain stopped play late on Monday evening.
The 14th seed returned to Court One yesterday and played just four points, completing the sole game with an ace to finish the match.
Lleyton Hewitt won a Grand Slam match for the first time this year as the Australian veteran beat Poland’s Michal Przysiezny 6-2, 6-7 (14/16), 6-1, 6-4.
Hewitt crashed out at the first hurdle in the Australian and French Opens earlier this year, but the former Wimbledon champion ended that disappointing run by grinding out a win in 3 hours, 2 minutes on Court Three to book a second-round clash against 15th seed Jerzy Janowicz, the big-serving Pole who reached the semi-finals last year.
The 33-year-old was joined in the second round by compatriot Nick Kyrgios, the 19-year-old who marked his Wimbledon debut with a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 victory over world No. 78 Stephane Robert of France.
In the women’s singles, Sabine Lisicki, last year’s runner-up, opened her Wimbledon campaign with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 victory, proving she was worthy of the privilege of kicking off Centre Court action.
Opening proceedings on the main show court on the second day of the tournament, known as ladies day, is usually reserved for the previous year’s champion, but Marion Bartoli, 29, has now retired from the game.
A smiling Lisicki, the world No. 19, looked at ease right from the coin toss ceremony overseen by Bartoli. The 24-year-old wasted no time seeing off Israel’s Julia Glushko, ranked No. 79, winning in less than an hour to help erase memories of her nervy and emotional performance in last year’s final.
That final was 24-year-old Lisicki’s best Grand Slam performance to date, knocking out five-time champion Serena Williams on the way — a feat she may have to repeat if she is to book another final appearance this year.
Caroline Wozniacki reeled off four consecutive games to complete a 6-3, 6-0 win over Israel’s Shahar Peer in their rain-suspended first-round match.
Wozniacki led 6-3, 2-0 when play was stopped by showers late on Monday.
The 16th seed lost in the first round at the French Open a week after her engagement to two-time major golf champion Rory McIlroy was called off.
Third-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska also reached the second round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Romania’s Andreea Mitu.
Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up, next faces Casey Dellacqua of Australia for a place in the last 32.
On Monday, 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 — and, really, only a moment — to take in the sights and sounds on Centre Court as nearly 15,000 spectators, including Shaquille O’Neal up in the Royal Box, rose to greet him with a raucous standing ovation.
Murray’s parents and grandparents were present. So, of course, was his much-discussed recent choice as coach, Amelie Mauresmo. The other player, 105th-ranked David Goffin of Belgium, was little more than a bystander for all of the proceedings, which wrapped up a little more than two hours after they began with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 victory for Murray.
The man he beat in last year’s final, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, won in similarly easy fashion, taking the first 11 games and never facing a break point en route to beating 56th-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.
Three lower-seeded men lost though: No. 18 Fernando Verdasco, No. 25 Andrea Seppi and No. 31 Vasek Pospisil.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei also exited after a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Tereza Smitkova of the Czech Republic.
Hsieh can now concentrate on defending her women’s doubles title with partner Peng Shuai of China.
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