The first to step on court was four-time champion Venus Williams against Naomi Cavaday, a British wildcard. In the first set at 6-5 on serve, Cavaday had a chance to serve out the set, but Venus immediately broke back to make it a tiebreak. Venus then demolished the Brit and too the first set. In the second set, Venus took full control of the match and quickly won the match, 76(5) 61.
"I thought she played excellent," said Williams, who fell behind 3-1 in the first set before finding her groove. "She really took advantage of her opportunities and played with poise on this occasion, which is Centre Court in front of a home crowd. She served well, returned with force and ran a lot of balls down, so I was impressed with her game. I think it's nice to have a really challenging opponent early on."
"Obviously it was a great experience for me," Cavaday said. "I got off to a great start. I really just went at her. I had to give it everything I had, my best crack. I got the lead in the first set and it was a shame I lost it. Then the second set got away from me a little bit. I think she started to relax and I didn't make enough first serves. I didn't go at her as much. She definitely upped it in the second."
Sharapova took the first set easily 6-1, and in the second set took a quick 5-2 lead but lost her serve and her opponent won her serve to make it 5-4, but Sharapova closed it out in the end, to defeat her opponent Stephanie Foretz of France, 61 64.
"It was definitely a good start, considering I didn't have a warm-up tournament like I usually do," Sharapova said. "Obviously it's important to start off the tournament on good form. I knew my opponent had already played a couple of matches. My goal was just to go out there, get a feel for it as fast as I could and get the job done."
Lindsay Davenport, also a past Wimbledon champion, was playing Czech Renata Voracova. Davenport had a knee injury in Eastbourne, and her at Wimbledon, had it heavily strapped with tape. She won the first set, but dropped the second, and eventually won the third to defeat her opponent in her opening match.
"It's not ideal," Davenport said. "You've got to stay in the present. For me, right now it's about getting my knee better to play again on Thursday. So it would be impossible for me to speculate about how this will affect me, because right now it's Wimbledon. I'm here, and I'm just kind of focusing on that."
Jelena Jankovic also played her opener today, against Ukrainian Olga Savchuk. She was leading 63 50, but lost two games in a row to finally close it out 63 62.
"Overall I thought I played a pretty good match for the first round, because first rounds are the toughest for me," Jankovic said. "I had a slow start in the beginning, I couldn't find my rhythm. But after that I started feeling the ball really well. I was hitting my backhand quite solid, quite clean. I found my game. I was attacking a lot and didn't allow the other girl to play her game."
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