London: Former world number one Victoria Azarenka won her first match since January at Wimbledon on Monday on the same court where she suffered a knee injury which ended her 2013 hopes.
Azarenka, the eighth seed, won 6-3, 7-5 against Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who was a semi-finalist back in 1999, on Court One.
That was the same arena where she hurt her right knee in a nasty fall in the first round 12 months ago, an injury which sparked her withdrawal from the next round. It was a defeat which led to Azarenka angrily condemning the All England Club courts as dangerous.
This year, the former Australian Open champion has been plagued by a left foot injury which kept her off tour from Indian Wells in March to Eastbourne last week where she lost her opener to Camila Giorgi. Azarenka now goes on to face Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.
Former US Open champion Sam Stosur’s unhappy union with Wimbledon continued as the Australian became the highest seed to fall by the wayside on the opening day, going down 6-3 6-4 against Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
Cheered on by compatriot and four-time grand slam champion Kim Clijsters from the stands, Wickmayer dominated play from the baseline to leave the 17th seed chasing shadows on a warm and sunny day at southwest London.
The result condemned Stosur to her sixth first-round exit at the grass court major, a tournament where she has failed to progress beyond the third round in 12 visits.
“[I’m] pretty annoyed about it, to be honest. I don’t have an answer because I do feel I played well,” the 30-year-old Australian said.
“That’s that. I still think I’m a good enough player to get through first rounds here, and for whatever reasons it’s not happening. It sucks.” Wickmayer will next face Croatia’s Ana Konjuh for a place in the third round.
