Wimbledon Wrap: Murray, Nadal, Venus Advance to Second Round

Defending champion Andy Murray won his opening match, beating Alexander Bublik 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal returns to Australia’s John Millman during their Men’s Singles Match on day one at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship in London.

(Photo: AP)

Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray won their first round matches and advanced into the second round of Wimbledon.

On No 1 Court, Williams had to wait through a 33-minute rain delay to win her opening match. She had two match points before the rain came. Play was stopped with Williams leading 5-3, 40-40 in the second set.

When play resumed, Mertens held serve to make it 5-4, but Williams served out the match.

Defending champion Andy Murray also won his opening match, beating Alexander Bublik 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

Murray entered the tournament after pulling out of a pair of exhibition matches because of a sore hip. "I was a bit nervous this morning," Murray said. "I hadn't been able to do as much as I would have liked in the buildup."

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Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion who was injured in a knife attack at her home in December, beat Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court while Rafael Nadal defeated John Millman of Australia 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.

Second-seeded Simona Halep and No 17 Madison Keys also won. Halep, who lost in the French Open final, beat Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-4, 6-1. Keys defeated Nao Hibino of Japan 6-4, 6-2.

Keys, who is right-handed, was playing for the first time since having a second surgery on her left wrist.

"It's obviously not perfect," Keys said. "I haven't been able to do the repetitions that ideally I would have wanted to do, but it feels fine. Doesn't hurt anymore. That's really all I care about."

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In the men's draw, Nick Kyrgios retired from his first-round match after losing the first two sets.

The 20th-seeded Australian was trailing Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France 6-3, 6-4 when he called for a trainer to work on his left hip. He then decided to stop the match. Kyrgios also retired with an injury from his first-round match at Queen’s, a Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

"I kind of knew I was in trouble. I have been feeling my hip ever since I fell over at Queen's. Never got it right," Kyrgios said. "I was doing everything I could to help it, but just not enough time."

Two-time semifinalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also reached the second round. The 12th-seeded Frenchman beat Cameron Norrie of Britain 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

Ninth-seeded Kei Nishikori and 24th-seeded Sam Querrey also advanced.

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(With inputs from AP.)