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ITN
Henin and Federer ease through
Henin and Federer ease through
Top seeds Justine Henin and Roger Federer have defied the weather to breeze into second round at Wimbledon, but Tim Henman must wait.Justine Henin, seeking her first Wimbledon crown, brushed past Argentine Jorgelina Cravero 6-3 6-0 in less than an hour in a match that was interrupted by rain.And it was business as usual for Federer as the defending men's champion began his quest for a record-equalling fifth straight title in assured fashion.After rain delayed the start of play at the All England Club by almost three hours, Federer emerged onto Centre Court to beat Russian debutant Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3 6-2 6-4 in just 92 minutes.Tim Henman piled on the tension and the excitement as usual as he gave the Centre Court crowd another trademark late-night thriller.With the clock on the scoreboard twinkling 9.18pm in the Wimbledon gloaming, Henman's first round match against Spain's Carlos Moya was called off for bad light with the score 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2 5-5.One of Henin's main rivals in the women's tournament, seventh seed Serena Williams survived some erratic moments to beat Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-5 6-0 in the first round of Wimbledon.Teenager Naomi Cavaday was a gallant loser but there was little else for British tennis fans to cheer on the opening day of Wimbledon.Cavaday, the first of 12 Britons to go into action, squandered two match points against former champion Martina Hingis in between the rain showers while the rest of the home players were thwarted by the English weather.Joshua Goodall, Jamie Baker and new British number one Katie O'Brien all started their first-round matches before bad light intervened while Lee Childs, Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha did not hit a ball in anger.Goodall, the 21-year-old British number five from Basingstoke, trailed 6-1 6-4 at the hands of world number 60 Feliciano Lopez when the match was forced off just before 9pm.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
ITN | June 25, 2007
