Serena scraps through unexpected dogfight to advance in Wimbledon

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No. 1 Ash Barty wins on No. 1 Court; Nadal sets up Kyrgios clash

LONDON, July 2, (Agencies): Serena Williams began her first-round clash at Wimbledon in complete comfort, but ended it screaming in delight as she finally suppressed Giulia Gatto-Monticone having been dragged into an unlikely dogfight by the world number 161.

The Italian qualifier, who was making only her second Grand Slam appearance at the age of 31 having amassed a relatively modest $300,000 in prize money throughout a pedestrian career, was eventually subdued 6-2 7-5.

But she put the seven times champion through her paces, testing the injuries that have limited the American to seven matches since the Australian Open in January.

“She never gave up – it’s good for me to play matches like this as I haven’t played too many matches this year,” said Williams.

“It’s the best I’ve felt since February. It felt amazing to be on grass after some tough times on clay. I’m so thankful and I’m happy to be back doing what I love.”

Gatto-Monticone came from the other side of the tennis tracks to Williams, having only played one previous match against a top-20 player and never beaten someone ranked higher than 102.

Yet her staying power against the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who has amassed nearly $89 million in prize money, gave the fans on Centre Court a contest they could not have expected when Williams took the opening five games.

From then on, however, the two players went toe-to-toe, albeit in a scrappy encounter low on quality.

After taking the first set in 29 minutes, Williams had to wait until the eighth game of the second set to break serve only for the resilient Italian to fire straight back and then level at 5-5.

After getting her nose back in front, Williams brought up match point on Gatto-Monticone’s serve, pumping her fists furiously before wrapping up the encounter following a lengthy rally and rapid exchange at the net.

Like an ageing heavyweight, the 37-year-old Williams clearly still packs a punch but looked well-below par and desperately in need of matches to regain sharpness.

Next up for the former world number one will be a second-round clash against Kaja Juvan, a highly-rated 18-year-old prospect from Slovenia who showed off her potential with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win over Kristyna Pliskova.

Ash Barty played her first match as the No. 1 player in the world on No. 1 Court at Wimbledon, and she won.

The top-seeded Australian, who followed her victory at the French Open by winning a grass-court warm-up tournament in Birmingham, advanced to the second round at the All England Club on Tuesday by winning her 13th straight match. She beat Zheng Saisai 6-4, 6-2.

“It feels incredible,” Barty said about playing at Wimbledon as the top-ranked woman. “It’s a little bit of a bizarre feeling, to be honest. But I just try and go about my business the exact same way.

“This hallowed turf that we do get to play on is sacred, it’s beautiful. And you have to enjoy every minute.”

Defending champion Angelique Kerber also advanced, beating Tatjana Maria 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court.

“I was really nervous, to be honest, because of course to (go) out there as the defending champion, it was really special,” Kerber said. “Walking on the Centre Court, playing there again, I mean, a lot of emotions, a lot of memories.”

Both Barty and Kerber are in the same quarter of the women’s draw, which means they could meet in the quarterfinals. Seven-time champion Serena Williams is also in that same quarter, and she also won, beating Giulia Gatto-Monticone of Italy 6-2, 7-5.

Garbine Muguruza, the 2017 Wimbledon champion who was also placed in that same tough quarter of the draw, didn’t make it through her first match. And neither did Maria Sharapova, the champion in 2004.

Muguruza, seeded 26th, lost to Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-4. Sharapova, who served for the match while leading 5-3 in the second, retired from her match with a left wrist injury while trailing Pauline Parmentier of France 4-6, 7-6 (4), 5-0.

The combative and combustible Nick Kyrgios advanced to the second round despite winning only five points in the fourth set. The unseeded Australian beat Jordan Thompson 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (10), 0-6, 6-1.

Kyrgios took a medical timeout after the second set and a trainer came on court to examine his left side. He then won the third set in a tie-breaker – a set which took 1 hour, 16 minutes to complete.

The fourth set, however, lasted only 18 minutes as Thompson won 24 points while Kyrgios took only five.

“The medical timeout was to loosen up my hamstring a little bit. It was a physical match.” Kyrgios said. “Especially on the grass, it was a little bit slower this year. There were a lot more rallies.”

Rafael Nadal has had numerous nasty surprises in Wimbledon’s early rounds so when Japan’s Yuichi Sugita won the opening two games of their first-round clash on Tuesday he might have felt a pang of anxiety.

The Spaniard need not have worried though as he recovered from that initial hiccup to claim a dominant 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win.

Apart from the smattering of Japanese fans cheering on 30-year-old qualifier Sugita, it was the result that 99.9% of people following the Championships desired as it sets up an intriguing second-round tussle between Nadal and Nick Kyrgios.

The pair have traded barbed comments this year with Nadal accusing Australian maverick Kyrgios of disrespect after losing to him in Acapulco while Kyrgios described the 18-time Grand Slam champion as being “super salty” in defeat.

nadal was just happy to get through his first grass-court match in a year without any major alarms and refused to get involved in the hype surrounding what comes next.

“I’m too old for all that stuff,” he said after coming off court. “Too many years on the tour. What I said, I said.

“I’m not a guy who will be in a fight with any

Pulses were racing around Wimbledon for around 40 minutes on Tuesday as an All England Club debutant nicknamed ‘The King’ threatened to invade Roger Federer’s grass-court kingdom.

When little-known South African Lloyd Harris took the first set, the jitters had well and truly set in amongst the 15,000 Centre Court crowd who feared His Royal Swissness could be about to suffer his first opening-round loss at a major since 2003.

But on a day when the Swiss was supported by his parents and family friend the Duchess of Cambridge from the Royal Box, the eight-times champion eventually turned on the style to hand down a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory.

“Just because I’ve had good results in the past doesn’t mean you’re going to keep producing it,” said second seed Federer, playing at Wimbledon for a professional era record 21st consecutive year.

“I struggled early on, felt a bit frozen, my legs weren’t going… and things happened really quickly. He did very well and kept me nervous for a set and a half.”

Contesting his 108th match at the All England Club, Federer had been expected to ease to his 96th win at the grass-court major considering he was facing an 86th-ranked journeyman who had yet to play a main Tour match on the green stuff

German great Boris Becker had heralded the Swiss maestro’s arrival on Centre Court by proclaiming: “This is Roger Federer, the finest artist tennis has ever known.”

However, young upstart Harris, who was six when Federer won the first of his 20 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2003, cared little for such reputations.

The South African, wearing a back-to-front baseball cap, came out swinging to break the mighty Federer serve in the sixth game and held on to the advantage to seal the first set when the Swiss swiped a backhand long.

When Federer fired a double fault in the first game of the second set and followed that by netting an easy volley, the gasps grew louder on Centre Court.

But if Harris harboured any hopes this might be the day he would emulate the 1951 feat of American Dick Savitt, who was the last man to win the Challenge Cup on his Wimbledon debut, his dreams were brutally crushed over the next three sets.

It was not the regal performance expected from the supremo contesting a record-extending 77th major but Federer, who got 28 percent of his first serves in during the third set, dropped only five more games and sealed victory with his ninth ace.

“That break in the (fourth game of the) second set was very crucial to turn things around and then I got into the match and things started to change. It took a big effort and I thought Lloyd played a good match,” said the 37-year-old.

“Mentally I knew there was still a long way to the finishing line for my opponent and experience kicks in.

“It was all managing the nerves and that took a set today but credit to him for swinging big in the beginning.

Next up for Federer is British wildcard Jay Clarke.

However, fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem, who lost to Nadal in the French Open final, was eliminated after losing to Sam Querrey 6-7 (4), 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-0.

Thiem follows a pair of other top seeds out of the tournament in the first round. No. 6 Alexander Zverev and No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas lost on Monday.

“I was mentally prepared for this kind of game,” said Thiem, who has had much more success on the slower clay surface. “Just broke down a little bit after he converted his first break chance, and that was it basically.”

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