• Wimbledon, Day One

What They Said

ESPN staff
June 20, 2011

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal may be unbeaten at Wimbledon since 2007, but the Spaniard has never had the honour of opening proceedings on Centre Court as reigning men's champion. The Spaniard shrugged off a slow start to kick off the defence of his Wimbledon title in style, and he loved every minute of the flawless grass surface.

"I've never seen a court like this. It's fantastic today. When I won in 2008 I didn't play in 2009 in the first match," he said. "I didn't start playing my best tennis but I finished very well."

Nadal also revealed he had stayed up late the night before, watching Rory McIlroy win the US Open: "I stayed up until one o'clock this morning to watch Rory win the golf," he admitted. "It was fantastic, it was exciting and he deserved it. He did unbelievably."

Nadal had to fight back from a break down in the opening set, but his slow start was nothing to Andy Murray's 'hiccup'. The No. 4 seed gave the British fans a major scare after losing the opening set to Daniel Gimeno-Traver, but ultimately proved too strong as he powered to a 4-6 6-3 6-0 6-0 victory. While the Scot insisted he did not underestimate his opponent, he admitted he was surprised at how strongly he started.

"He was hitting the ball very big and I did well to hang in there in the second set," Murray said. "I've played against him before and I've practised with him and I've seen him play some great matches. He can be quite up and down but he started great. I was a little bit surprised he hasn't had great results on the grass before."

Despite being plagued by injuries in recent years, Venus Williams has never missed Wimbledon since her debut in 1997. On the comeback from an abdominal injury, the five-time champion is delighted to be back at the All England Club: "It's always great to be back," Williams said. "To play a few matches at Eastbourne helped me feel pretty comfortable here. All in all, I'm pretty pleased. I only see pluses for today. I missed being out here playing."

The brief delay worked in Francesca Schiavone's favour © PA Photos
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Former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone got her first taste of playing under the Centre Court roof when the rain arrived on Monday afternoon. Having lost the opening set, her opponent Jelena Dokic was in the ascendancy after racing through the second, but her progress was checked by a brief delay as the roof was employed. Schiavone admitted she was grateful for the opportunity to speak with coach Corrado Barazzutti.

"It was good for me to stop," Schiavone admitted. "For me it was fantastic because I started the third set and I couldn't understand why she was playing so aggressively and I couldn't move her. Of course, when they [shut] the roof, I went back to the locker room and I spoke with Barazzutti. He said something to me, something that was really important. So I came back and I was playing better."

Second seed Vera Zvonareva survived a scare against American Alison Riske to reach the second round: "She played some good tennis but I tried to stay focused. I had some ups and downs but I'm really happy I was able to pull it off in the end," Zvonareva said. "I lost my concentration for a bit but I always fight for every point and I was able to pick it up in the third set."

Britain's Katie O'Brien was the first player to crash out of this year's tournament when she lost 6-0 7-5 to Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm. She revealed she almost quit the sport last year: "You have to work so hard, and I literally sacrificed so many things to get to where I was. I won a lot of the matches to get to the top 100, and then suddenly you step up a few levels and you're losing more matches than you're winning, and that really does hurt your confidence. It's a tough sport. A year or so ago I was seriously considering stepping away from the game. But tennis is my passion, so that would be really hard for me to do."

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