Serena Williams dusted off a few cobwebs to power into the second round at Wimbledon yesterday, surviving an early wobble against Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan to win 6-4, 6-1.
The world No. 1 made an inauspicious start to her bid for a sixth Wimbledon title and a second non-calendar year grand slam when the lowly-ranked Russian broke in the opening game and held on bravely as Williams slowly warmed up.
The frustration was clearly telling on Williams as she trailed by a break and 3-2 in the opening set, an audible obscenity earning her a warning from the umpire.
Photo: EPA
She received little respite from Gasparyan, whose rasping groundstrokes frequently found their target, but Williams discovered her rhythm, broke to level for 3-3 and did not look back.
The 33-year-old broke again when Gasparyan netted a backhand to clinch the first set after 48 minutes and powered away, breaking twice in the second set and crunching away a smash on match point to clinch victory.
Wimbledon giant-killer Nick Kyrgios made a triumphant return to the All England Club with a 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) first-round demolition of Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.
Kyrgios was back at Wimbledon 12 months after he stunned Rafael Nadal in a memorable fourth-round upset on Centre Court that made him the lowest ranked player to beat a world No. 1 at a Grand Slam in 22 years.
The brash 20-year-old, who eventually exited in the quarter-finals last year, followed that breakthrough performance by becoming the first teenager since 1990 to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals.
“I’ve had a bit of a sinus infection and haven’t played much, but I’m getting better,” Kyrgios said. “I started unbelievably and hardly missed a ball in the first two sets. I’m feeling confident.”
Canberra-born Kyrgios, already renowned for his flamboyant style on and off court, endured the first difficult period of his career in the build-up to Wimbledon.
A lingering virus contributed to his 47-minute defeat against Stan Wawrinka at Queen’s Club and Kyrgios, weary from spending several months on the road, responded by withdrawing from a tournament in Nottingham and complaining that he wanted to forget about tennis for a while.
Then, just days before his Wimbledon opener, the world No. 29 split with long-time coach Todd Larkham.
However, returning to the scene of his giant-killing exploits seemed to put a spring in Kyrgios’s step and, after striding onto Court Two with a pair of bright pink headphones clamped to his ears, he swept through the first set in just 17 minutes.
Schwartzman, the world No. 63, was playing only the second grass-court match of his career and Kyrgios ruthlessly exploited his lack of experience to seal the emphatic win in 85 minutes.
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