LONDON: Serena Williams swapped the skin-tight catsuit that caused a stir at the French Open for a more conservative look as she marked her return to Wimbledon for the first time since becoming a mother with a 7-5 6-3 first-round win over Arantxa Rus yesterday.
US Open champion and fourth seed Sloane Stephens became the tournament’s first big name casualty when she lost to Croatia’s world 55 Donna Vekic 6-1, 6-3.
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki, who has never got to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, scored a 6-0, 6-3 win over Varvara Lepchenko.
Venus Williams, a five-time champion and runner-up last year, made the next round with a 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-1 win against Johanna Larsson of Sweden.
Victoria Azarenka, a former world number one and two-time semi-finalist, defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
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The seven-times champion Serena, who missed last year’s tournament while pregnant with her daughter Alexis Olympia, is considered by many as the woman to beat at these championships despite her lowly ranking of 181.
Yesterday she proved that she was not back to simply make up the numbers in the women’s field. Neither a tumble on Court One’s manicured lawn nor falling a break behind in the second set caused much alarm.
As she has done time and time again, Serena got over those blips with the minimum of fuss.
She did need six match points to finish off the Dutchwoman but a netted backhand finally sealed the American’s passage into round two.
“She played unbelievable today, I’ve never seen her play like that before... I didn’t play my best but I’ll get there,” Serena said soon after walking off court.