Federer cruises pass Lajovic at Wimbledon opening day

Roger Federer of Switzerland opened defence of his title by defeating Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, 6/1; 6/3; 6/4 on an opening day that featured many American players with mixed fortunes.

The fourth seeded Sloane Stephens suffered an upset in the hands of Donna Vekic of Croatia 6/3; 6/2 while Madison Keys defeated Australia’s Tomljanovic 6/4; 6/2.

The second seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark defeated America’s Varvara Lepchenko 6/0, 6/3 to advance to the second round.

The 32-year old Varvara was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan but lives in Allentown Pennsylvania. She reached the third round of Wimbledon in 2014.

While Federer was in cruise control on Centre Court, three top American ladies were on the next three stadium courts.

French Open finalist Stephens dropped the first set 6/1, unable to find her footing on the slippery turf. Vekic took Stephen’s serve in the seventh game and held to lead 5-3.

In the ninth game, Sloane recovered from match point at 30-40; then lost a game point before succumbing on the fifth match point to lose the set 6-3.

Vekic progressed to the second round, which was her previous best showing at Wimbledon in 2017.

Madison Keys needed one break of her opponent’s serve to take the first set 6/4 but was ahead all through the second set that ended 6-2. The match lasted just 61 minutes.

The 25 year old Australian, ranked 65 in the world, was born in Zagreb Croatia but now lives in Brisbane, a great city for tennis.

Venus Williams faced three break points and eventually lost the tenth game of the first set to world number 58 Johanna Larsson of Sweden.

The ninth seeded Venus saved three set points at 40-15, and after deuce, needed a third break point to take the 12th game.

Venus then led 3-1 in the tie-break but lost six consecutive points to concede the first set 6-7 in 70 minutes.