Top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland has defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets in his first round match at the Wimbledon tennis Championships in London.
The easy 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win Tuesday was Federer's record 42nd consecutive grass-court victory, breaking the old record of 41 he shared with five-time Wimbledon champion Bjorn Borg of Sweden.
After less than an hour of play was possible because of rain on Monday's opening day, third-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium and number-five Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia took advantage of the dry weather to move into the second round.
Henin-Hardenne demolished China's Meng Yuan 6-0, 6-1, while Kuznetsova ousted Romina Oprandi of Italy, 6-3, 6-2. Number-12 Martina Hingis of Switzerland got her first Wimbledon campaign since 2001 going with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Olga Savchuk of Ukraine.
In other men's action, fourth-seeded David Nalbandian and number-seven Mario Ancic of Croatia advanced. Nalbandian topped South Africa's Wesley Moodie, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, while Ancic defeated Nicolas Amalgro of Spain, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6.
Eighth-seeded James Blake of the United States Blake beat Denmark's Kristian Pless in four sets (6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4), but Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden upset 12th-seeded countryman Thomas Johansson, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Other men's seeds moving into the second round included number-13 Tomas Berdych, who beat fellow Czech Jan Hernych, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. Spain's 24th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero beat countryman Fernando Vicente, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, while number-30 Kristof Vliegen of Belgium knocked off Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2.
But number-21 Gael Monfils of France was upset by Russia's Igor Kunitsyn, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4.