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Germany's Angelique Kerber plays a return to Germany's Tatjana Maria in a Women's singles match during day two of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Tuesday. (AP/PTI)[/caption]
London, July 2 (IANS): Germany's Angelique Kerber and Australia's Ashleigh Barty kicked off their participation in the 2019 Wimbledon Championships with victories over Tatjana Maria and Saisai Zheng, respectively on Tuesday.
Kerber, the 2019 Eastbourne runner-up, managed to recover her form at the London-based Grand Slam last season when the German prevailed over United States star Serena Williams in the final to lift the 2018 trophy, reports Efe news.
Regaining her form last year now has helped the fifth-ranked German player Kerber to top her countrywoman Maria, 65th-ranked, in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday, after an hour and 21 minutes of play.
The former world No.1 Kerber is the player with the most number of matches won over the three most recent editions at Wimbledon, now with 17 encounters and only two defeats in the past three years.
Next up in Wimbledon's second round, Kerber is to take on Lauren Davis of the United States, who defeated Ukraine's Kateryna Kozlova 6-3, 6-2.
At her first Grand Slam as the top-seeded player, Barty stamped her authority over Zheng, world No. 43, with a 6-4, 6-2 win after 76 minutes of play, claiming her fourth victory over the Chinese player in their head-to-head clashes.
Barty also managed to extend her singles winning streak since the 2019 Roland Garros to 13 matches, as she was crowned the champion of the clay court French Open Grand Slam and the grass-court Birmingham tournament.
The Australian player is set to play Alison Van Uytvanck in the second round after the Belgian battled for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 23-year-old Barty won the 2011 junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at the age of 15.
If the top-ranked Aussie is to win this year's edition, she will be the first player to win the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double since Martina Navratilova did so in 1984.
In other Wimbledon first-round action on Tuesday, Elise Mertens of Belgium made the second round after her easy 6-2, 6-0 win over Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro.
In the second round, Mertens will play Monica Niculescu of Romania, who earned a hard-fought 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win over Germany's Andrea Petkovic.
Venus knocked out of Wimbledon by 15-year-old
American teenager Cori "Coco" Gauff knocked off compatriot Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the first round at Wimbledon.
"She said congratulations. I told her thank you for everything that you did. I wouldn't be here without you. I always wanted to tell her that," the 15-year-old Gauff said after the match on Monday, reports Efe news.
The world number 301, the youngest player ever to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open Era, took out a player who is 24 years her senior, setting a record for the match with the biggest age difference between opponents at the grass-court event.
"Honestly I don't really know how to feel. That's the first time I have ever cried after winning a match. I don't even know how to explain how I feel," Gauff said.
Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, appeared to be getting back into the match at 4-4 in the second set, but Gauff did not falter and continued to put the pressure on.
"I definitely had to tell myself to stay calm, I had to remind myself that the lines are the same lines, the courts are the same size and after every point I told myself 'stay calm,'" Gauff said.
With this victory, Gauff, who had just 31 professional matches under her belt heading into Wimbledon, will move up to world No. 215 in the WTA rankings.
Up next for Gauff is Slovak veteran Magdalena Rybarikova, who took out No.10 seed Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, 6-2, 6-4 earlier in the day.
Tennis star Sania Mirza will join broadcasters Star Sports as an expert to analyse the day-to-day action of the ongoing Wimbledon for fans across the country.
Sania, a six-time grand slam winner and former Wimbledon double's champion, brings her wealth of knowledge having played the singles, doubles and mixed doubles formats and will join from the studios on Star Sports Select 1/HD and Star Sports Select 2/HD and on Hotstar.
A lethal combination of an unstoppable forehand backed by a steely will and a title winning mentality, she has been one half of some of the successful doubles in both women's and mixed categories with partners like Martina Hingis and Mahesh Bhupathi.
