Wimbledon 2011 – News

Rafael Nadal began proceedings on Centre Court, and looked in no trouble at all against Micheal Russel and cruised into the next round. The match of the day saw 6th seed Francesca Schiavone defeat the returning Jelena Dokic in a hard fought encounter while British hope Andy Murray dropped the first set but recovered to cruise through in 4 sets. There were no major upsets in both draws as Venus Williams, Vera Zvonereva, Gael Monfils and Tomas Berdych all going through on a rain hit first day. Only two seeds were knocked out on the opening day, 30TH seed Tomasz Belluci in the men’s draw and 28th seed Ekaterina Makarova in the women’s draw. In the days other entertaining match, 12th seed Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame a stiff challenge from the relatively unknown Chinese talent Shuai Zhang to win in 3 sets.

With lots of matches cancelled due to the inclement weather, there is plenty of action in store on Day 2. The Centre Court will see the return of Serena Williams back on court for only the third time since winning last year’s final. 6 time champion Roger Federer will take on a qualifier while No 2 seed Novak Djokovic will also begin his quest for a maiden Wimbledon triumph. Court No 1 will see Andy Roddick, women’s top seed Caroline Wozniaki and the Swede Robin Soderling. No 3 seed and French Open winner Na Li will also open her campaign while No 4 seed Victoria Azarenka will look to progress after rain halted play. The all Croat affair between Ivan Ljubicic and Marin Cilic is locked at 1 set a piece while 15th seed Gilles Simon is leading 2 sets to 1 in his match. India’s Sania Mirza will also be in action today as she takes on Virginie Razzano. The men’s field will also see Indian Somdev Dev varman start his Wimbledon campaign as he takes on unseeded German Denis Gremelmayr.

Former Champion Maria Sharapova, Serbians Jelena Jankovic and Ana Inavonic are expected to take to the court as the glamour quotient will be on full display on the second day of the Championships. Will this day see a major upset?

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