Mauresmo makes an impressive start

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WIMBLEDON, England -- Amelie Mauresmo got her Wimbledon title defense off to a speedy start with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Jamea Jackson in 63 minutes on Tuesday.

Mauresmo had an early scare when Jackson, the world number 158, had a break point in the opening game. However, she saved that with an ace and the American put her next service return into the net.

After that it was business as usual for the French fourth seed and she broke Jackson in the next game with a backhand drop volley.

Jackson grew in confidence in the second set, approaching the net more often and saving three break points at 4-2 down but in the end the 20-year-old was no match for the champion.

"It was the first game. You just try to get your rhythm in," Mauresmo told a news conference when asked about having a break point against her.

"I guess it was probably good that I made this game because then, you know, I was really into the match and was able right after to have my first break."

Mauresmo has had a mixed season, after two months out with appendicitis earlier in the year but she displayed her grasscourt skills, combining delicate volleys with thumping groundstrokes, in front of a chilly Centre Court only two thirds full.

The 27-year-old was playing with her right thigh heavily strapped, the remnant of the muscle tear that hampered her French Open challenge where she lost in the third round, but said it had not affected her performance.

"It has given me some problems the last few weeks, so I prefer just to make sure that it's not going to get any worse," the former Australian Open champion said.

"It's more of a prevention thing and for support really."

Mauresmo added that she found playing on the roofless Centre Court a very difference experience. The All England Club is in the middle of a three-year modernisation project which includes building a retractable roof over the main show court.

"It seems like it's completely another court," said Mauresmo of the arena where she won the title last year.

"It's lost a bit of its intimacy. It's not that it's better or not as good, it's just different."

Second seed Maria Sharapova was made to work harder than she had planned against Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan but she eventually swept her aside 6-1 7-5 in the first round.

The Russian 2004 champion raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set before her 51st-ranked opponent held her serve.

A series of unforced errors by Sharapova combined with a fightback by 17-year-old Chan produced a tighter second set in which the world number two dropped her serve in the seventh game.

"I was a little bit passive (in the second set), especially on her second serves," Sharapova told a news conference.

The 20-year-old showed little sign of the shoulder injury that sidelined her for two months this year, although she said cool weather at the London tournament was not helping it.

"During this tournament, I will have to be on anti-inflammatories. Especially in these conditions when it's so cold, the balls are heavy, even heavier than they were at the French Open. It's like everything's going against it," she said.

Sporting a frilly dress that she said was designed to look like a swan, Sharapova wrapped up the match on Chan's serve and will face either compatriot Ekaterina Bychova or Severine Bremond of France in the second round.

Three-times former champion Venus Williams came through a first round fight on Tuesday, dismissing Russian teenager Alla Kudryavtseva 2-6 6-3 7-5.

Williams, her power serve and elegant ground strokes deserting her, at first looked sadly out of sorts on Court Two, known as the graveyard of champions because so many favorites have been beaten there.

Williams lost the first set in less than half an hour.

But Kudryavtseva, making her debut Wimbledon appearance at the age of 19, could not keep up the pressure in a one-sided second set.

The young Russian raced to a 3-1 lead in the deciding set but Williams, seeded only 23rd this year after an injury-hit season, fought back with a decisive break in the 11th game for victory.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic also moved through, crushing British wildcard Anne Keothavong 6-2 6-0.

In other early women's action on a chilly day in south-west London there was a harsh lesson for junior world champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The 15-year-old Russian was handed a wildcard in recognition of her Australian and U.S, Open junior titles but was no match for Slovakian 10th seed Daniela Hantuchova, losing 6-0 6-1.

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Mauresmo had an early scare when Jackson had break point in the first game.

Mauresmo makes an impressive start

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