Most Top Seeds Advance on Day Two of Wimbledon

Day two action continued at Wimbledon, with most of the sport’s top starts advancing, starting with defending Wimbledon Champion and top-seeded Serena Williams dominating in her match against Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal. The 12-time Grand Slam champion Serena took a little over an hour to defeat the Portuguese teen Larcher De Brito, 6-0, 6-4.

After French Open finalist Francesca Schiavone was defeated on Monday, sixth-seeded Samantha Stosur was ousted by the number 80 seed, Estonian Kaia Kanepi, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Kanepi’s serve was the statistic of the match, as she doubled Stosur’s ace output with eight.

Third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki also advanced to the second round by defeating Tathiana Garbin of Italy, 6-1, 6-1. Wozniacki extends her personal streak of advancing out of the first round in 13 straight majors.

The match between Vania King of the United States and 24th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia was suspended due to darkness after the second set. King took the first set 7-6 (4), while Hantuchova won the second set 7-6 (4). Play will resume Wednesday, June 23.

Sixteenth-seeded Maria Sharapova defeated Anastasia Pivovarova, 6-1, 6-0 in Tuesday action and Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova knocked out 25th-seeded Lucie Safarova, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal returned to Wimbledon for the first time since his five-set championship win over Roger Federer in 2008. Nadal missed last year’s event with a knee injury, and looked strong as he took out Kei Nishikori in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

Wimbledon hometown favorite Andy Murray returned to a hero’s welcome at Wimbledon, as the fourth-seeded Murray defeated Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-1, 6-2.

American James Blake, hampered all match long by a knee injury, was beaten in straight sets to Robin Haase of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

Sam Querrey, the 18th seeded American, advanced with his first round win over Ukranian Sergiy Stakhovsky, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 2-1. Stakhovsky retired in the third set due to illness. Another American, 23rd-ranked John Isner, had his match suspended with Nicolas Mahut of France after the fourth set due to darkness. Isner is tied up at two sets a piece with Mahut of France. Another American, Robby Ginepri, fell to sixth-seeded Robin Soderling. Soderling, the French Open finalist, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. American Robert Kendrick bowed out in four sets to the 10th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4. Michael Russell of the U.S. was victorious by eliminating Pere Riba-Madrid in four sets, 6-3, 7-6 (1), 2-6, 7-6 (1).

Upsets on the men’s side included 14th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, who lost to Xavier Malisse of Belgium, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1. Number eight-seeded Fernando Verdasco fell victim to Italian Fabio Fognini, ranked 80th in the world, 7-6 (9), 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-4. Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, number 24, fell to Lukas Lacko, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 and 19th-seeded Nicolas Almagro lost to Andreas Seppi, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7), 6-2, in straight sets, rounding out day two’s Wimbledon upsets.