Defending champion Novak Djokovic and five-time women’s winner Serena Williams reached the Wimbledon second round on Monday as organisers boosted security and weathermen ramped up warnings of a crushing heatwave.
Top seed Djokovic enjoyed a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber with crucial breaks in the ninth game of each set and goes on to face either 2004 champion lleyton Hewitt or Jarkko Nieminen for a place in the last 32.
“This is the cradle of our sport,” said Djokovic, playing his first match since his defeat to Stan Wawrinka at the final of the French Open three weeks ago ended his hopes of completing a career Grand Slam.
“There is no bigger tournament in our sport than Wimbledon. It’s always a special feeling to come out here as defending champion. There’s always a few butterflies.”
Djokovic, also the 2011 champion, hit 12 aces and 36 winners past world number 33 Kohlschreiber.
However there continued to be accusations that he and coach Boris Becker indulge in mid-match conversations thus making it against the rules and akin to cheating. “There are certain ways of communication which is encouragement, which is support, which is understanding the moment when to clap or say something that can lift my energy up, that can kind of motivate me to play a certain point. But it’s all within the rules,” he defended himself and the former winner.
Stan Wawrinka who beat Djokovic to win the French Open this past month also made it into the second round with a 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 win over Joao Sousa.
Top seed Williams, bidding to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to wrap up all four majors in one season, endured a nervy start, dropping serve and being warned for swearing, before completing a 6-4, 6-1 win over Margarita Gasparyan, the world number 113 from Russia who has never won a tour match in four years as a professional.
“It feels good so far. Just one match but it feels good just to be back here at Wimbledon. I’ve done so well here in the past so I’ll always have so many good memories here,” said the 33-year-old American after her 73rd Wimbledon match win gave her a second round clash against Hungary’s Timea Babos.
One of her biggest competitors, Maria Sharapova of Russia also progressed after beating local girl Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-2.
In other early action, Spanish ninth seed Carla Suarez Navarro went down 6-2, 6-0 to latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in just 52 minutes while Italian 24th seed Flavia Pennetta lost 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas.
Two-time semi-finalist Victoria Azarenka, saw off Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-1 and seventh seed Ana Ivanovic breezed past China’s Fan Xu-yi 6-1, 6-1.
In the men’s first round, Australia’s 26th seed Nick Kyrgios, who knocked out Rafael Nadal last year, eased past Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6).
US Open champion Marin Cilic, the ninth seeded Croatian and a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, got past Japanese qualifier Hiroki Moriya 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
2002 champion lleyton Hewitt of Australia played his last at Wimbledon on Monday as he went down 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 to Jarkko Nieminen in exactly four hours. The Aussie has said he will retire after Australian Open in January.
On the first day of the 2015 championships, security was stepped up in the aftermath of the weekend jihadist killings of 38 tourists in Tunisia, most of whom were British.
Spectators were subjected to the usual bag checks at the entrances to the All England Club in southwest london, where police officers were visible around the perimeter and inside the grounds.
Britain’s national terror threat level is currently at “severe”, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.
As well as security, fans and players were also bracing themselves for a rare British heatwave. On Tuesday and Wednesday, temperature are expected to be in the low to mid-30s.
One British newspaper even breathlessly predicted that Wednesday would sweat in 36 degrees.
Bopanna, Mergea win
Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea began their campaign with a hard-fought win over over Tim Smyczek and Jiri Vesley in men’s doubles.
The ninth-seeded pair eked out a 6-3, 7-6(1), 6-1 win over the unseeded team in one hour and 26 minutes at court no. 19.
They next face winner of the first round match between Radek Stepanek/Mikhail Youzhny and Tomas Bellucci/Guillermo Duran.