Wimbledon 2016: Agnieska Radwanska breezes through

London: With rain halting play everywhere except Centre Court at Wimbledon on Wednesday, number three seed Agnieska Radwanska was ready to become an armchair fan after her 6-2, 6-1 first-round win over Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova. Their delayed match survived the cull after being moved on to the roof-covered showcourt, opening play before Novak Djokovic and Swiss great Roger Federer took to the stage.

“Of course, now is good two matches, Novak and Roger, so I have plenty of tennis to watch,” she said as she came off court, relieved to have got her match completed on the day. World number one Djokovic racked up his 30th successive Grand Slam victory when he brushed aside Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) to reach the third round. The defending champion, bidding for a third consecutive title at the All England Club and fourth in all, will face either American 28th seed Sam Querrey or Thomaz Bellucci for a place in the last 16.
Don Budge holds the record for successive Slam matches won, reaching 37 in 1938.

French left-hander Mannarino was celebrating his 28th birthday on Wednesday. Radwanska’s potential second-round opponents, Italy’s Karin Knapp or Croatian Ana Konjuh, were still waiting for the showers to abate to get their match completed as the postponed fixtures began to pile up. The Pole raced into an early lead, breaking twice in the four first games before being pegged back by Kozlova, who did not seem in the least bit overawed despite making her debut at Wimbledon.

Radwanska, who reached the final in 2012, has never lost a first-round match on the Wimbledon grass and she kept up that record, sealing victory on her third match point on a neat second serve. She thought she had it in the bag with an ace, before a Hawkeye challenge by Kozlova left her smiling ruefully at being just millimetres short.

Meanwhile, Tomas Berdych battled the elements and a gritty display by unseeded Croatian Ivan Dodig, sealing a four-set victory he admitted should have been his the previous day. The 10th-seeded Czech, on the hunt for a new coach after splitting with Dani Vallverdu following May’s Italian Open, won 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (2) — one of only two matches completed by mid-afternoon as the weather cut a swathe through the programme.