Kerber overcomes slow start to down Wimbledon debutant Stojanovic

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – Newly-crowned French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova made a breezy start in her singles main draw debut at Wimbledon on Tuesday, beating teenager Clara Tauson 6-3 6-2 to reach the second round.

Two weeks after winning both the singles and doubles titles on the red clay of Roland Garros, the Czech edged the 18-year-old Dane on the big points to improve her winning run to 13 matches.

The newest member of the Grand Slam winners club, 14th seed Krejcikova won her first WTA singles title in Strasbourg in the leadup to the claycourt major.

After a rain-enforced delay, the 25-year-old converted three of her five break-point opportunities to wrap up the match in 70 minutes.

Former world number one Angelique Kerber, Ash Barty and Venus Williams were other Grand Slam winners in the women’s draw who advanced to the second round on another rain-hit day at the grasscourt major.

Grand Slam champions Victoria Azarenka, Bianca Andreescu and Jelena Ostapenko had their matches cancelled as rain halted play for a large part of day two at the All England Club.

Three-times major winner Kerber, who triumphed at Wimbledon in 2016, made a wobbly start against debutant Nina Stojanovic before finding her groove to secure a 6-4 6-3 win.

Kerber came into Wimbledon full of confidence following her first title triumph in three years at the inaugural Bad Homburg grasscourt event last week.

The German left-hander made a slew of errors at the start of her first career meeting with Stojanovic, however, trailing 3-0 before switching gears to surge ahead of the 24-year-old and bag the opening set under the roof on Court One.

Serbian Stojanovic, who had troubled Kerber with her huge serve and variety of strokes, struggled to find her range and was left with a mountain to climb as the 2018 winner broke early in the second set to race 3-1 ahead.

Serving with authority, Kerber fended off a late comeback attempt by her unseeded rival to complete the win on her fourth match point when Stojanovic sent a return long.

“She plays well, so she was going for it. I think it was a solid first round and first match. It’s great to being through,” Kerber said.

Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai and Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; editing by Ed Osmond

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