TENNIS/Wimbledon Championships:Serena Williams silenced the loudest grunter in women's tennis as she made a confident start to her defence of the women's singles title at Wimbledon.
The world number one gained a 6-0 6-4 first-round victory against Michelle Larcher De Brito, a 17-year-old from Portugal who was over-run at the start of the match but recovered to give the three-time champion something of a work-out in a competitive second set.
Williams was all power and precision as she took just three minutes over an hour to see off the youngster thought to have the biggest shriek in women’s tennis and set up a second-round meeting with Russian Anna Chakvetadze on Thursday.
The American needed three sets to win her only previous meeting with the teenager, but there was never a hint that she might encounter the difficulties experienced by Roger Federer on Centre Court yesterday.
Williams made a whirlwind start, breaking her opponent in the first game, consolidating with the aid of a 109mph ace and breaking again to love to race into a 3-0 lead.
De Brito won only a point in her next service game and Williams duly served out to wrap up the set in double quick time.
There was no let-up from the champion at the start of the second set as she restricted her opponent to just three points in the first two games.
De Brito raised a big cheer from the crowd when she won the longest rally of the match in the opening game of the second set.
She then stopped the rot by holding her serve in the third game when Williams put a forehand into the net and, from then on, the Centre Court crowd roared every point garnered by the teenager.
The atmosphere grew when De Brito held twice more but it merely delayed the inevitable as Williams continued to look impregnable on her own serve.
De Brito saved a match point in the ninth game but Williams served out to wrap up an impressive win.
The three-time champion, who has not lost in the first round of any of her 43 grand slam tournaments, managed to get one over on older sister Venus, who dropped five games in her first-round match yesterday.
Meanwhile, Sam Stosur followed fellow French Open finalist Francesca Schiavone in exiting at the first-round stage. The 26-year-old Australian, the sixth seed, was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi on Court 12 this afternoon.
Stosur had been tipped as a player who could challenge for the title after her run to the final at Roland Garros, beating Justine Henin and Serena Williams along the way. But her record at Wimbledon is poor, with a third-round appearance last year her best, and she found world number 80 Kanepi too hot to handle today.
Kanepi, who was the top seed in qualifying at Roehampton last week, has been as high as 18th in the world and she gained some valuable time on grass at Birmingham earlier this month when she reached the quarter-finals.
Stosur looked like she might find a way out of trouble when she saved three match points on her own serve and then forced break points on Kanepi’s, but she could not take them and the 25-year-old qualifier, whose only previous Wimbledon victory came three years ago, held on.