Defending Wimbledon champion Rybakina avoids upset

Defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina recovered from a poor start to avoid a first-round exit against American Shelby Rogers.

Hampered by illness in her build-up, she lacked energy against the world number 49 at the start but a dramatic shift in momentum sealed victory.

Later, Ons Jabeur, runner-up to Rybakina at last year’s tournament, beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-3 6-3.

Rybakina’s win means she avoided becoming the first women’s defending champion since 1994 to lose at this stage.

Steffi Graf was the champion who fell at that hurdle 29 years ago when she was beaten by American Lori McNeil – and after an error-strewn first set it had looked as if Rybakina would be joining the German in the history books.

But watched from Centre Court’s Royal Box by both tennis royalty and actual royalty in the shape of Roger Federer and the Princess of Wales, the Moscow-born 24-year-old battled to hold on to her own crown a little longer.

Rybakina got off to a shaky start, dropping serve in the opening game and serving two double faults in her first two service games, and she struggled to recover as a composed Rogers went on to seal the first set with an ace.

But it was soon the Kazakh who held all the aces, delivering five of them in a dominant second set that she whizzed through in 29 minutes as rain hammered down on the court’s closed roof.

She broke in the opening game of the third set when a wide-looking forehand was shown to be in by Hawk-Eye, and maintained the advantage, wrapping up victory when Rogers could only net a return.

“It was really tough for me today, I was really nervous,” Rybakina said in her on-court interview. “The double fault said it all at the beginning of the match.”

She will play France’s Alize Cornet or Japan’s Nao Hibino in the second round as she bids to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to defend the women’s singles title here.

Later on Tuesday, Australian Open champion and Wimbledon second seed Aryna Sabalenka is due to open her campaign against Hungary’s Panna Udvardy.

Jabeur ‘pretends to be Ronaldo’

Returning to the tournament where Rybakina beat her to the title, Jabeur joked her week started badly when she arrived and saw a photo on the wall of the Kazakh with the trophy in the locker room.

But sixth seed Jabeur opened her campaign with a no-nonsense victory over Frech, set to the backdrop of more rain hammering down on Court One’s roof.

A break in the fifth game and the last was enough to seal the opener as Jabeur completed a straightforward performance with an impressive backhand volley before Frech slashed one into the net.

Despite having struggled with a calf injury for much of the season, the Tunisian was never really troubled by 70th-ranked Frech and even entertained the crowd with some of her signature trick shots.

A stunning backhand volley leaping through the air and some lovely floated drop shots entertained the crowd as Jabeur joked after that she likes to pretend to be Cristiano Ronaldo on court.

“I played a lot of football when I grew up on grass, not tennis. I love football so much so maybe that’s why I pretend I am Ronaldo playing here,” she said.

“I like to joke around, I hate routine, doing those shots doesn’t go to the basic forehand or backhand. I like to entertain the crowd, so hopefully I did that.”