Top seed Dinara Safina struggled to find her grasscourt legs before edging past Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-5 6-3 in the first round at Wimbledon on Tuesday. The world number one is hoping to break her Grand Slam duck after failing to get past Round Three in six previous visits to the All England Club, and after a testing start showed signs she can go deep into the tournament. Dominguez Lino, ranked 72, proved difficult to break down and a late break proved crucial as Safina took the opening set after 55 tight minutes on Court One.

Safina toiled again in the second, wasting her first chance to seal the match serving at 5-2 before breaking again to progress to a second-round berth against Paraguay’s Rossanna de Los Rios.

Five-time champion Venus Williams recovered from an early stumble in her opening match to beat Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2. It was Williams’s first appearance on Centre Court since the 2008 final, when she beat sister Serena for her second Wimbledon title in a row. Former No 1 Jelena Jankovic beat Julia Goerges 6-4 7-6 (0).

Kimiko Date Krumm, a 38-year-old wild card who came out of retirement last year, lost in her first Wimbledon match since 1996 to ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 5-7 6-3 6-1.

On the men’s side, No 5-seeded Juan Martin del Potro never faced a break point and swept Arnaud Clement 6-3 6-1 6-2. No 12 Nikolay Davydenko beat Daniel Evans 6-2 6-3 6-3.

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