Top seed Angelique Kerber wins in Wimbledon first round
Muguruza, Radwanska and Pliskova also advance
Tuesday 4 July 2017 19:13, UK
Last year's runner-up Angelique Kerber began her Wimbledon campaign with a straight-sets victory over world No 247 Irina Falconi on Tuesday.
World No 1 Kerber lost to Serena Williams in the 2016 final but, returning to the Grand Slam as its top seed, started with a 6-4 6-4 win as she opened Tuesday's action on Centre Court.
Germany's Kerber, earlier this year, became the first women's top seed to lose in a French Open first round but she enjoyed better luck at Wimbledon.
Kerber will next face Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens who was too strong for Japan's Misaki Doi, winning 6-4 6-3 on Court No 16 to start her campaign with little fuss.
Joining Kerber making serene progress were a couple of former runners-up including fourteenth seed Garbine Muguruza, a potential quarter-final opponent for Kerber at the All-England Club.
The Spaniard, a runner-up at Wimbledon to Serena Williams in 2015, eased past world no 75 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2 6-4, while 24th seed Coco Vandeweghe beat Germany Mona Barthel 7-5 6-2 to join the other leading names in the second round.
Poland's Agnieska Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up and a semi-finalist in 2013 and 2015, also got her campaign off to a winning start, coming from a break down in the first set against Jelena Jankovic to prevail 7-6 6-0 while Kristina Mladenovic had little trouble in a straight sets triumph over Pauline Parmentier.
Third seed Karolina Piskova also had little trouble in matching on, she saw off Evgeniya Rodina 6-1 6-4 and will meet Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round on Thursday.
Caroline Wozniacki completed a 6-4 4-6 6-1 win against Timea Babos.
Day one saw Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep, Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina advance as the leading contenders eased through in SW19 but there were some high-profile exits on Tuesday.
Seeds tumble
Sixteenth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova crashed out as she slumped to a surprise defeat at the hands of world No 166 Arina Rodionova
The Russian-born Australian needed 2hrs 31mins before eventually winning 3-6 7-6 9-7.
Two other seeds were among the early exits with Kiki Bertens, Daria Gavrilova and Lauren Davis joining Pavlyuchenkova in exiting at the first round stage.
Bertens, the 23rd seed, went down in straight sets to Soriano Cirstea in a high-quality contest while 28th seed Davis was beaten by Varvara Lepchenko and 20th seed Gavriola saw her hopes ended by Petra Martic who claimed the third set 10-8.
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