Wimbledon Championships
Venue: All England Club, London Date: 21 June - 4 July
Coverage: Live on BBC One and Two, HD, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary online and on mobile phones.
Full details of BBC coverage
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By David Ornstein
BBC Sport at Wimbledon |
Defending champion Serena Williams produced a ruthless display to crush Michelle Larcher de Brito 6-0 6-4 and march into round two of Wimbledon.
Top seed Williams made a blistering start on a sun-drenched Centre Court, breaking her Portuguese opponent three times in a 21-minute opening set.
Larcher de Brito, 17, battled admirably in the second but an early break and Williams's extra power proved decisive.
Next up for the American is Anna Chakvetadze, who beat Andrea Petkovic.
The emphatic nature of Williams's victory will fill the three-time champion with confidence ahead of what is sure to be a testing fortnight.
"I'm relieved to get through because she (Larcher de Brito) is really good player," Williams told BBC Sport. "It's great to be here, fit and healthy.
"Hopefully I'll play in front of the Queen (on Thursday) but also hopefully not because I might get a little bit nervous."
Williams is seeking a 13th Grand Slam singles title, which would see move one clear of Billie Jean King in the all-time list, and on this evidence she has every chance of getting it at SW19 on 3 July.
She returned to the scene of her 2009 triumph to a rapturous ovation and quickly set about picking Larcher de Brito's game apart in the first set.
Decked in a strawberries and cream-inspired outfit, Serena reeled off a couple of stunning winners en route to a break of serve in the opening game.
An unreturnable serve saw her hold to 15 and she gained the double-break when Larcher de Brito put a forehand long.
The Florida-based Portuguese was struggling to get close to Serena's serve and three aces in game four took the reigning Australian Open champion to within touching distance of the set.
Larcher de Brito was struggling to serve much above 85mph and with a crosscourt backhand into the tramlines she was broken to 15 in game five before Serena served out with another thumping ace.
Statistics showed that Larcher de Brito was getting 0.5 seconds to react to Seren's serve but the real problems were on her own delivery and she netted a backhand to concede an early break in the second set.
Two more aces helped Serena move into a 2-0 lead and, while clearly in awe of the world number one, the Centre Court crowd took it upon themselves to rally around Larcher de Brito.
More to follow.
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