Barty produces stylish finish

LONDON • Top seed Ashleigh Barty's bid to win Wimbledon, half a century after fellow indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley won her first All-England singles title, got off to a winning start yesterday with a 6-1, 6-7 (1-7), 6-1 victory over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.

The world No. 1 has never been beyond the fourth round here but two breaks of serve in the first set and then one at 4-4 in the second seemed to have set her up with a routine victory.

Sporting a 1970s-inspired outfit that paid homage to her idol, she looked comfortable in what was her first grass-court match for two years after last year's edition was cut due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But with errors creeping into her game, her opponent broke back and the set went into a tie-break.

Suarez Navarro - who returned last month following chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin lymphoma - dominated it. Barty, though, pulled herself together and showed what she was capable of in the deciding set.

There was little sign of the hip injury that forced her to retire from the second round of the French Open and she made no mistake when holding three match points, taking victory with her first one.

Suarez Navarro's lack of matches - her French Open first-round loss was her only other appearance on the WTA Tour this year - caught up with her in the end. But the former world No. 6, who will end her career at the Tokyo Olympics, received a standing ovation as she departed the Centre Court for the last time with Barty, 25, leading the applause for the popular 32-year-old.

On the cancer survivor, she said: "To be able to share the court with Carla was incredible. She's a genuine champion and she's going to be very sorely missed."

There was also another fighting performance on display as 41-year-old Venus Williams, a five-time champion at the All England Club, marked her record 90th Grand Slam appearance with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 first-round win over Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu.

The wildcard, ranked 111th, making her 23rd appearance at the tournament, will next face Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who beat Sweden's Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-1.

In the men's draw, fourth seed Alexander Zverev served strongly to overpower Dutch qualifier Tallon Griekspoor 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

Last year's US Open finalist had lost to qualifiers on his last two visits here, but the 124th-ranked Griekspoor, making his Wimbledon main draw debut, did not have the game to challenge the German in their first meeting.

The world No. 6 hit 20 aces, kept his unforced errors low and broke his opponent's serve six times before sealing the match with a backhand winner down the line.

SELECTED 1ST RD RESULTS

MEN'S SINGLES

Alexander Zverev (Ger) bt Tallon Griekspoor (Ned) 6-3 6-4 6-1, Diego Schwartzman (Arg) bt Benoit Paire (Fra) 6-3 6-4 6-0, Dan Evans (Gbr) bt Feliciano Lopez (Esp) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 7-5, Sebastian Korda (USA) bt Alex de Minaur (Aus) 6-3 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5), Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt Albert Ramos-Vinolas (Esp) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4.

Venus Williams (USA) bt Mihaela Buzarnescu (Rom) 7-5 4-6 6-3, Karolina Pliskova (Cze) bt Tamara Zidansek (Slo) 7-5 6-4, Elise Mertens (Bel) bt Harriet Dart (Gbr) 6-1 6-3, Ons Jabeur (Tun) bt Rebecca Peterson (Swe) 6-2 6-1, Maria Sakkari (Gre) bt Arantxa Rus (Ned) 6-1 6-1.

Benoit Paire, the "bad boy" of tennis, lived up to his moniker after making such a tame first-round exit that a fan screamed: "Stop wasting our time."

The 46th-ranked Frenchman, whose history of indiscretions include spitting and swearing on the court, did not appear to try as he went down 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 to Argentina's Diego Schwartzman.

The match had been carried over from Monday because of the rain and a disinterested-looking Paire later said he had "the right to miss two returns in a row" before again railing at the Covid-19 restrictions put in place by tennis authorities.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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