This was not the Serena Williams the tennis world is used to seeing on Centre Court. It was still good enough for the defending Wimbledon champion to advance to the second round in straight sets.
Struggling on serve and failing to dominate against a 148th-ranked Swiss qualifier playing in her first Grand Slam tournament, Williams labored to a 6-2, 6-4 victory Tuesday over Amra Sadikovic — the 80th match win of her Wimbledon career.
With her mother, Oracene Price, watching from the Royal Box, the six-time Wimbledon champion jumped out to a 3-0 lead, running off 13 points in a row at one stage, defying her reputation as a slow starter.
The 27-year-old Sadikovic, who decided to retire in 2014 to work at a tennis club in Basel but eventually was talked into returning to the tour, made things tricky for Williams. She took a 2-1 lead in the second set and stayed even until the final game, when she was broken while serving at 4-5.
The match ended on a successful line challenge by Williams after she hit a backhand return that was called long. After the video replay showed the ball hit the back of the line, Williams grinned and threw up her arms in triumph.
EASY SAIlING FOR MUGURUZA
French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was extended to three sets before winning her first-round match at Wimbledon on Monday.
The second-seeded Spaniard beat Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Centre Court.
The match was effectively decided in the third game of the final set, which lasted more than 10 minutes and included five deuces and six break points. The game ended with Muguruza breaking for a 2-1 lead when Giorgi hit a forehand into the net.
Meanwhile, in a first-round contest played under the Centre Court roof, Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-4.
The 13th-seeded Russian, playing in her 13th Wimbledon, held off a late charge from the 45th-ranked Wozniacki, who was unseeded at a Grand Slam for the first time in eight years.