WIMBLEDON, United Kingdom – Defending champion Serena Williams has won her opening match at Wimbledon to remain unbeaten in first-round Grand Slam play.
Playing first Tuesday on Centre Court, Williams hit 15 aces as she beat 17-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 6-0, 6-4.
Williams improved to 43-0 in first-round matches at major events. She has won 58 of her past 59 matches against players ranked outside the top 100.
Larcher de Brito, ranked 148th, has three wins over top-20 players but was no match for Williams. The three-time champion played 33 minutes before losing a game, and she finished with 47 winners to six for Larcher de Brito.
On a warm, sunny afternoon, Williams won all 27 points on her first serve, including an ace with her final shot.
Elsewhere, two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has narrowly avoided an upset.
The 19th-seeded Russian edged 93rd-ranked Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4.
Amanmuradova took the tiebreaker with the help of four service winners and an ace.
Since the start of the season, Kuznetsova has fallen from third in the rankings to 19th, dropping out of the top 10 for the first time in more than four years. The Russian lost in the fourth round at the Australian Open and in the third round as defending champion at the French Open.
