Muttering and mumbling throughout, Serena Williams looked a tortured soul at Wimbledon yesterday before finally reaching the third round.
After rating her first-round performance “two out of 10'', Williams is unlikely to be satisfied with her ragged display yesterday when she came back from a break down in each set before beating Australian Alicia Molik 7-6 6-3.
At least Williams already has two Wimbledon trophies to her name. Fellow American Andy Roddick is still looking for his first.
Third seed Roddick, twice a finalist, has had six failed bids and he moved a step closer to his dream with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 defeat of Thailand's Danai Udomchoke.
“It was an up-and-down match,'' the 24-year-old said afterwards. “Mentally I was a bit up and down today but I got through it.''
Danai's defeat completed a bad day for the Asian nations. Ninth seed Martina Hingis survived two match points in her previous match but avoided any such drama in a 6-1 6-2 thrashing of Japan's Aiko Nakamura.
China's Yan Zi, Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei and Ayumi Morita of Japan all bowed out in the first round of the women's draw.
French Open champion Justine Henin enjoyed a swift 60-minute workout to overcome Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-0 6-4 in the second round.
The Belgian's last two victims at Roland Garros, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, are fast becoming used to the spotlight after they were feted by thousands when they went home to Serbia following their Paris exploits.
However, sixth seed Ivanovic had to make do with a more modest crowd on court 18 and surged past Melinda Czink 6-0 7-6 in another delayed first-round encounter.
Jankovic was even more ruthless in a 6-1 6-1 demolition of Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova.
Serena Williams has been tipped by many, including John McEnroe, to win the title here but she has so far failed to live up to that expectation.
With more loose shots than winners, the seventh seed began berating herself at 4-1 down in the first set.
“I just got really angry. I thought it was unfair that I got down so far. I was like, ‘OK, it's just one break'. But 4-1 looks worse than one break,'' said the 25-year-old.
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