London, June 27: Reigning women's champion Lindsay Davenport made a winning start here at Wimbledon but not in circumstances she would have liked on Centre Court as fellow American and doubles partner Corina Morariu had to withdraw through injury in their first-round tie.In the men's singles, flag-waving Brazilians invaded the All-England Club as their hero, French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, stormed into the second round.Fourth seed Kuerten, who captured his second Roland Garros crown earlier this month, dispatched Chris Woodruff of the United States 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-5).Kuerten, dubbed the King of Clay for his brilliance on the surface which has landed him a full collection of titles at Roland Garros, Monte Carlo, Hamburg and Rome, showed he is no slouch on the turf even though his rival ran him close. Pete Sampras had said a while ago, ``Once you taste success at the majors, you just want to keep on tasting it. It gets tougher each season, but I'm looking forward to it and winning a seventh Wimbledon title.'' The rain gods finally stopped playing truant and made an appearance at Wimbledon, but not before they allowed the All-England Club's favourite son to get a head start in his quest for the Holy Grail of tennis for a seventh time. Sampras, meeting little-known Czech Jiri Vanek, someone who won't even come close to qualifying for the title of pretender, dispatched him 6-4 6-4 6-2 in 84 minutes on Monday.Following Sampras onto centre court, Russian glamour girl Anna Kournikova created a minor upset when she got past French 10th seed Sandrine Testud 7-5 5-7 6-4. While Testud has only herself to blame for the sheer number of unforced errors she made, Kournikova, who squandered a winning position in the second set, 5-2 up and with two match points in hand, and a third match point later, will have to do a re-think on her lack of confidence in closing out matches from a winning position.In another showcourt match, top seed Martina Hingis, happy to put the problems of last year's disastrous first round exit behind her, swept past Spaniard debutant Angeles Montolio on Court One 6-1 6-2 in 55 minutes. Hingis said while it did not take her long to get over last year's result, ``getting back with my mother was important to me.''The Serena Williams-Asa Carlsson match, on Court 3, was also almost over before it began, with US Open champ Serena winning 6-3 6-2 showing little sign of her two-month injury lay-off from professional tennis.The Swede had no answer for Serena, who apart from a couple of clumsy volleys, looked good to go through ``the next six matches,'' as she put it after the tie. Saying that her left knee, in which she suffered tendinitis, the same problem that had affected sister Venus in both wrists, ``was doing really well now,'' Serena added she felt ``tournament tough and confident.''Sister Venus is also in her half of the draw. ``Venus is a possible opponent,'' she agreed, ``but I'm not looking that far ahead yet.''Venus meanwhile, indicated no ill-effects of her six-month break, showing Czech Kvela Hrdlickova the door with a quickfire 6-3 6-1 win. She will now face Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama, who became the first winner this year with a 6-1 6-2 hiding of compatriot Yuka Yoshida.
