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Ivanovic, Serena reach second round at Wimbledon

Mon 23rd, June 2008

Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - World No. 1 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and two-time Wimbledon titlist Serena Williams of the United States were first-round winners Monday at Wimbledon.

The top-seeded Ivanovic steamrolled Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios 6-1, 6-2 on Centre Court at the All England Club.

The 20-year-old Ivanovic, who has won her last eight Grand Slam matches and appeared in three of the last five Grand Slam finals, will face France's Nathalie Dechy in the second round.

"Coming as the top seed, lots of people just expect you to win," Ivanovic said. "You have to work hard, especially on grass. Everything is happening so fast."

The sixth-seeded Williams opened her ninth stay here with a somewhat difficult 7-5, 6-3 decision against Estonian Kaia Kanepi on Court 1 on a sunny Day 1. Williams fired seven aces, held her serve throughout, and tallied two breaks en route to the second round.

Williams has never lost an opening-round match at a major tournament.

The former top-ranked Williams, a quarterfinal loser here at the hands of recently-retired Belgian star Justine Henin last year, captured Wimbledon back-to-back in 2002 and 2003 and was the 2004 runner-up to Russian Maria Sharapova.

Up next for Williams will be Poland's Urszula Radwanska.

Serena's older sister Venus, a four-time Wimbledon champion, is the reigning titlist here, having beaten France's Marion Bartoli in last year's finale. An 11th-seeded Bartoli opened her '08 fortnight with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over German Sabine Lisicki.

Top-10 Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anna Chakvetadze survived scares on Day 1, as the fourth-seeded Kuznetsova overcame France's Mathilde Johansson 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-3, while the eighth-seeded Chakvetadze snuck past Canada's Stephanie Dubois 2-6, 6-1, 8-6. Kuznetsova, last year's U.S. Open runner-up and the 2004 U.S. Open champion, was trailing 1-3 in the third set before coming back to beat Johansson.

Twelfth-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder was unable to avoid an upset, as the veteran lefthander was stunned by fellow southpaw Casey Dellacqua of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Schnyder has never advanced beyond the fourth round at the All England Club and typically loses within the first two rounds here.

Rising Pole Agnieszka Radwanska stayed hot with a 6-3, 6-0 pasting of Czech Iveta Benesova, while 15th-seeded Hungarian Agnes Szavay zipped past Italian Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-3. The 14th-seeded Radwanska is fresh off her third title of the year, on a grass court at Eastbourne.

Former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo reached the second round by handling American Ashley Harkleroad, who will appear in the August issue of Playboy magazine, 6-4, 6-3. The former world No. 1 Mauresmo, seeded 29th, titled here in 2006, the year she also captured the Australian Open.

Eighteenth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova moved on with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Czech Zuzana Ondraskova and 28th-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko held off Brit Melanie South 6-3, 6-7 1-7), 6-4, while upsets occurred when Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova dismissed 17th-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 7-6 (8-6), 7-6(7-4); Vera Dushevina ousted 19th-seeded fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-3; Russian Evgeniya Rodina erased 27th-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 0-6, 6-2, 6-4; and Chinese Jie Zheng drove out 30th-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-3.

Additional first-round wins came for Dechy, Britain's Elena Baltacha, France's Pauline Parmentier, Aussie Samantha Stosur, Russian Elena Vesnina, Romanians Monica Niculescu and Edina Gallovits, Poland's Marta Domachowska, Ukrainians Tatiana Perebiynis and Kateryna Bondarenko, Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Chinese Na Li, American Bethanie Mattek, Spaniards Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual, and Urszula Radwanska.

The first round is scheduled to conclude here on Tuesday, with matches coming for second-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a third-seeded Sharapova, a seventh-seeded Venus, and former Wimbledon champion Lindsay Davenport. Jankovic will face Ukrainian Olga Savchuk, while the former Wimbledon winner and three-time major titlist Sharapova will battle France's Stephanie Foretz, the reigning champion Venus will take on Brit Naomi Cavaday, and the 25th- seeded Davenport will encounter Czech Renata Voracova. Venus is a six-time Grand Slam champion, including Wimbledon titles in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007. The three-time major champion Davenport was the Wimbledon titlist back in 1999.

Other top stars slated for Day-2 action are fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva, ninth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina and 10th-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova. Dementieva is a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, while Safina was the French Open runner-up to Ivanovic earlier this month.

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