Wimbledon Day One: Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Venus Williams Advance

DEFENDING CHAMP: Rafael Nadal hits a shot during his first round match against Michael Russell on Day One of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The 2011 Wimbledon tennis tournament started Monday morning, with some of the biggest names in the tennis world taking the court.

On the men’s (sorry, Gentlemen’s—this is Wimbledon) side, the projected final is Rafael Nadal against one of the top four: Noval Djokovic, Andy Murray, or Roger Federer.

First, of course, the top seeds have to get through the early rounds.

The women’s (no, Ladies’) side is wide open. No single player rose to fill the void left by the Williams sisters. Now that Venus and Serena are back, the question is, how much have they lost in their long layoffs? If both sisters are strong, they could well face each other for their fourth (Serena) or sixth (Venus) Wimbledon crowns.

Top-ranked Raphael Nadal faced American Michael Russell, a 33-year-old journeyman who made a surge in the second set, going up 4–2 and breaking Nadal’s serve. The defending Wimbledon champion wasted no time in breaking back, dispatching the American in three sets.

When asked after the match who he saw as his toughest opponent, the Spanish champion named the next man he faced, Ryan Sweeting. “He’s a good player. I’ve seen him winning matches, and he’s better and better every time,” Nadal told Wimbledon.com.

“Let’s talk about today, or tomorrow, not about ten or 12 days’ time, when I don’t know if I’ll be here or fishing in Majorca.”

Scotsman Andy Murray is back again to try to win Wimbledon for the U.K. for the first time since 1936. The fourth-ranked Scot got off to a bit of a rough start against Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

Gimeno-Traver has had a horrible year, getting beat in the first round everywhere he has played. It looked like that streak might end, as the 549th-ranked Spaniard took Murray to 3–3 in the second, down a break.

Murray survived that break point, took a 40–15 lead in the next game, and nearly lost that as Gimieo-Traver fought back to deuce. Murray persisted, broke his opponent, and then finally found his confidence.

As Murray grew stronger, Gimeno-Traver seemed to shrivel; Murray won 15 games in a row to close out the match, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, 6–0.

On Tuesday, the number-two and -three men’s players, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, face France’s Jeremy Chardy and Kazakhstan’s unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin, respectively. Neither Djokovic nor Federer should be challenged.

Williams Sisters Return to Wimbledon

Good news for fans of women’s tennis: the Williams sisters have returned after long layoffs to recover from injuries.

Five-time Wimbledon winner Venus Williams looked ready to pick up where she left off, as she beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6–3, 6–1.

Williams withdrew from the Australian open earlier this year, and had played in only one tournament since, the grass-court matches at the 2011 AEGON International at Eastbourne, U.K., last week. The warm-up apparently served her well as the former no. 2-ranked player (now ranked 25th) showed no sign of rust.

Serena Williams—formerly no. 1, now ranked 30th—will play 61st-ranked French-Iranian Aravane Rezai Tuesday. Serena missed almost a year recovering from a foot injury and blood clots in her lungs, returning—with sister Venus—for the tournament at Eastbourne.

Seventh-ranked Francesca Schiavone, who recently finished second at the French Open, needed three sets to beat 45th-ranked Jelena Dokic. This match was interrupted as the stadium roof was closed to ward off a light rainstorm.

Number-three ranked Vera Zvonerava needed three sets to defeat American Alison Riske.

Also on Tuesday, China’s Li Na, fresh off her French Open win, faces 72nd-ranked Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in what should be an easy match.