Nadal cruises through as Serena silences scream queen

Rafael Nadal launched his bid to regain the Wimbledon title by crushing Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the men's singles yesterday.

Earlier, defending women's champion Serena Williams silenced scream queen Michelle Larcher de Brito with a 6-0, 6-4 win.

Nadal was playing his first match at Wimbledon since his epic victory over Roger Federer in the 2008 final and he quickly got back in the old routine on Centre Court.

A bout of tendinitis in both knees prevented Nadal from defending the title last year and he is desperate to make amends this time.

Nadal arrives in south-west London in superb form after winning the French Open for a fifth time and will now meet Dutchman Robin Haase, who clinched a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 victory over James Blake, in the second round.

Williams had warmed up for her first round clash with one of the loudest grunters on the women's tour by going to a Green Day rock concert last weekend, but the world number one had no need to worry about being put off by Larcher de Brito's shrieking as she demolished the Portuguese teenager.

It is 12 months since Serena beat her sister Venus in the fourth all-Williams Wimbledon final and little has changed to suggest a different name will be on the trophy this year.

Venus was barely troubled by Rossana De Los Rios in her opening match on Monday and Serena, who plays Anna Chakvetadze in the secound round after the Russian's 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Andrea Petkovic, looks in the mood to win the singles' title at Wimbledon for a fourth time.

She won the first eight games of the match and attributed her fast start to an improved serve.

"I served so terrible in my last match at the French (Open) so I went home and worked really hard on it," Serena said.

"I was incredibly disappointed with it. I had a talk with my serve! I said, 'You know, we got to do a little bit better'."

Elsewhere in the women's singles, French Open runner-up Sam Stosur slumped out as the Australian sixth seed was humbled 6-4, 6-4 by Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

Polish seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska swept to a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hungary's Melinda Czink.

Former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 19th seed from Russia, cruised to a 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 victory against Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.

Britain's Anne Keothavong blew a 4-1 lead in the final set as Australia's Anastasia Rodionova came back to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and earn a clash with Kuznetsova.

Italy's Flavia Pennetta, the 10th seed, beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-0 and Chinese 23rd seed Zheng Jie eased past France's Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-4.

In the men's singles, David Ferrer, the Spanish ninth seed, routed Nicolas German wild card Kiefer 6-4,6-2, 6-3.

French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ground out a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-4 win over America's Robert Kend-rick.

American 18th seed Sam Querrey moved into the second round when Sergiy Stakhovsky, already trailing 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 2-1, was forced to pull out injured.

Nicolas Almagro, the Spanish 19th seed, was eliminated 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 by Italy's Andreas Seppi.

Russian 13th seed Mikhail Youzhny beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), while Brazilian 25th seed Thomaz Bellucci beat compatriot Ricardo Mella.

Other results: (men) Murray bt Hajek 7-5 6-1 6-2; Lacko bt Baghdatis 6-3 2-6 6-3 6-1; Haase bt Blake 6-2 6-4 6-4; Dolgopolov bt Chiudinelli 6-4 6-3 6-3; (women) Sharapova bt Pivovarova 6-1 6-0; Oprandi bt Watson 6-4 1-6 6-3.