Wimbledon Round 1: Serena Williams def Michelle Larcher de Brito
| Serena Williams(1) | 6 | 6 | ||||
| Michelle Larcher de Brito | 0 | 4 |
The sun was out in all its glory for day two of Wimbledon and Serena Williams' opening match in the defence of her title. The Centre Court continued to look smart. The grass mowed in such a way that it created a pattern of stripes.
Serena played the Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito and it was not till the ninth game of the match that de Brito scored her first game. It was a stunning performance from Serena as she closed out the match 6-0, 6-4 in 63 minutes. The result was a far cry from their only other meeting which was on hardcourt in Stanford in 2008 which Serena won in three sets.
"She's a good player; I played her before, Serena said. "So that was good that I played her before, so I knew what to expect. She doesn't look it, but she definitely packs a punch. It was good for me because most people that do play nowadays hit really hard. It was good to get someone that hit really hard early on."
Serena was calm through the match but when she powered down some of her blistering service aces she would clench her fist and urge herself on even more.
When she served for the match she lost just one point and that was because she slipped on the still fresh grass. Even then Serena was quick enough to get up and return the ball but de Brito had an open court to put the ball away.
Serena started the game with an ace, her 13th for the match and by the end of the game she had powered down another two, the last one being on match point ... the sweetest way to finish a match.
"I served so terrible my last match at the French," Serena said. "I went home and worked really hard on my serve. I was incredibly disappointed with it. Had a talk with my serve. I said, You know, we got to do a little bit better. Hopefully I can continue to serve well throughout The Championships and just keep going."
Dressed in a white dress, which is what Wimbledon insists on, Serena still had some red trim in her outfit, most notably her red shoe laces. The funds generated from the laces go to organisations that work in the fight to end AIDS in Africa. You can go to www.joinred.com to find out more.
"Well, we dubbed the dress Strawberries and Cream," explained Serena. "Strawberries, is that the correct enunciation of it? I don't have a good British accent. The red is strawberries and the white is cream. It's not like a pure white; it's more of a cream. Also the red kind of symbolizes a lot of things I do in Africa, along with a lot of the work, like the red laces. Everybody that buys a pair can pretty much save a life in Africa.
"I really kind of wanted to tie that all together with this championship. Since it means so much to me, I thought it could work well. The tournament means so much to me as well as the things I do in Africa. I thought it could also work well together."
Charitable causes and helping impoverished people are important to Serena, something that is highlighted by the two schools she has opened in Kenya, Africa.