Roger Federer eased past Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 to start his title defence in perfect fashion on Monday.
Talking about fashion, Federer’s career-long association with Nike appeared to be over on Monday as the Wimbledon champion walked on to Centre Court wearing a Uniqlo-branded outfit. The top seed, however, was wearing Nike footwear as Uniqlo do not manufacture shoes.
A change of outfit did not take anything away from the brilliant Federer as it took only 22 minutes to wrap up the first set 6-1 after breaking Lajovic three times.
The second only lasted seven minutes longer than the first, as Federer broke serve and was ruthless on his own to take the set 6-4. The third was the only set to reach 30 minutes, but it was still very comfortable for the defending champion.
This was a very good start for Federer, who looks as good as ever in his pursuit of a ninth Wimbledon crown.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson is also through to the second round after cruising past Norbert Gombos of Slovakia with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
On the women’s side, seven-time champion Serena Williams didn’t have it as easy as Federer. She started the match by holding serve and breaking Arantxa Rus’ serve at the first time of asking, but she handed that advantage right back in the next game. Both women held serve for the rest of the set until the 12th game when Williams got the deciding break to take the first set 7-5 in 45 minutes.
The second almost took as long as the first as Rus broke Williams for the second time in the match to take a 3-1 lead, but Williams did not let that get to her and broke Rus in the sixth and eighth games, and serving out the set in the ninth to seal a 7-5, 6-3 victory in 99 minutes.
Roland-Garros runner-up Sloane Stephens crashed out after suffering a 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Donna Vekic.
Other selected men’s results:
Marin Cilic defeated Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
Gael Monfils defeated Richard Gasquet 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-4
Milos Raonic defeated Liam Broady 7-5, 6-0, 6-1
Stan Wawrinka defeated Grigor Dimitrov 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-4
Other selected women’s results:
Caroline Wozniacki defeated Varvara Lepchenko 6-0, 6-3
Venus Williams defeated Johanna Larsson 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-1
Madison Keys defeated Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4, 6-2
Andrea Petkovic defeated Shuai Zhang 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
Photo: Wimbledon.com
