Wimbledon 2015: 'Super nervous' Serena Williams into second round but wary of too much history talk

Serena Williams beat Margarita Gasparyan 6-4 6-1 in the first round

(Getty Images)

It’s a big fortnight for Serena Williams. A sixth Wimbledon crown is on, as is that 21st major singles title, a second Serena slam to match that of 13 years ago, and even one of the calendar variety.

Only three women in the history of the game have won all four grand slams in the same year and she is one step closer after her 6-4, 6-1 victory against Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan. This was a hard-fought breeze. It should have been easy, was at times straightforward and in between a bloody mess.

In the opening skirmishes Williams gave the impression of being ordered to play at gun point, such was her apparent lack of enthusiasm. She surrendered her opening service, fell heavily in the sixth game and shortly afterwards was warned for uttering her first audible obscenity of the week.

Not quite the start expected against a player ranked 134 in the world, without a win on the WTA Tour and making her debut at Wimbledon. Gasparyan, on the other hand, was full of it, firing off bullet-like, single-handed backhands down the line as if she were playing her sister in the park.

Her success in the first game was met by a rousing cry from an admirer in the crowd who sang “Hey, Margarita” to the tune of the song. A lead of 3-1 was fully deserved, but by then the beast in Williams was slowly rising. As was the heat. Wimbledon is heading for temperatures more readily associated with The Great British Bake-Off. Umbrellas were quickly into the piece, shading the players between games.

The barometer is expected to nudge 35 degrees this week, even higher in the stadium setting, but not a problem for Williams, who reminded us of her training experience in Florida last week, when it hit 42 degrees by breakfast. Points won were met with familiar exhortations of “Come on”. As Williams heaved herself back into the game so the pressure began to tell on her opponent. Gasparyan’s first serve became ever more errant and her second ripped back across the net with atomic power to give the champion three games in a row.

Williams was not entirely convincing (Getty Images)

Gasparyan rallied in the eighth game to briefly restore parity before Williams re-established the natural order of things to take the set. The second was more emphatic on the scoreboard but, in keeping with the spirit of the match, lasted longer than it should have.

Williams was forced to endure the indignity of a deuce point when serving out for a contest propped up by a steady flow of unforced errors off her bat.

“Playing in the first round has always been super nervous for me,” she said. “She was just hitting a lot of winners. When the first set was over she actually hit more winners than I did. I’m usually quick to get to those shots. They were just so cleanly hit, there was nothing I could do.”

Asked about the importance of this event with all that might be achieved, Williams gave the “one-match-at-a-time” defence. “Honestly I don’t think about it, but every time I come into [the] Press you guys talk about it. It’s definitely historic, I guess, but it’s also six matches away and definitely not guaranteed. I’m just going to enjoy holding three right now.”

Double Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka continued her comeback from the foot injury that forced her to miss five months of her season in 2014 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Anett Kontaveit.

Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic went one better dropping just two games in a 6-1, 6-1 win against China’s Yi-Fan Xu.