Venus Safely Through

Another Brit bites the Wimbledon dust: Venus Williams took just 45 minutes to dispatch wilkdcard entry Jane O'Donoghue on Centre Court today.

The defending champion dropped just a game in each set as the British number seven had no answer to her powerful game.

When O'Donoghue won her first game in the first set she raised both her arms to urge on the crowd.

But with Williams losing just a single point on her own serve in the entire set, there looked no chance of her clawing her way back into the match.

O'Donoghue was broken in the first game of the second set but remarkably produced two crunching passing shots to break Williams back, to the delight of the Centre Court crowd.

But Williams was not remotely fazed and broke back again immediately before breezing through the remainder of the set for a 6-1 6-1 victory.

There was more British misery for Rachel Viollet who won just one game as she bowed out.

Viollet, daughter of former Manchester United player Dennis, lost 6-1 6-0 to Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva on court six.

The 30-year-old former British number one was always up against it against the 19th seed after losing the first four games.

Viollet, who spent two years away from tennis to look after her sick father, finally got a game on the scoreboard in the latter stages of the first set but had no answer to the experienced Maleeva who reached the fourth round here last year.

Belgian Kim Clijsters, once known only as Australian Lleyton Hewitt's boyfriend but now a star in her own right, eased into the second round with a 6-2 7-6 victory over American Samantha Reeves.

Clijsters, seeded five to match her world ranking, was hardly out of first gear in the first set, breaking Reeves in the third and seventh game and then taking the set with an ace.

Reeves, ranked 72 places below Clijsters, refused to be overawed in a tight-fought second set which went to a tie-break which the Belgian teenager eventually won 7-5.

But Clijsters, whose epic French Grand Slam final against Jennifer Capriati last year will be forever remembered, will have to raise her game on grass to ensure a smooth passage through the Wimbledon draw. Her next opponent will be unseeded Russian Elena Likhovtseva, who defeated Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-3 6-2 this morning.

Results from women's singles first round matches: (prefix number denotes seeding)

Jill Craybas (US) beat 28-Paola Suarez (Argentina) 6-4 5-7 7-5

19-Magdalena Maleeva (Bulgaria) beat Rachel Viollet (Britain) 6-1 6-0

1-Venus Williams (US) beat Jane O'Donoghue (GB) 6-1 6-1

5-Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat Samantha Reeves (US) 6-2 7-6 (7-5)

Maureen Drake (Canada) beat Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian (Switzerland) 6-3 6-3

Miriam Casanova (Switzerland) beat Henrieta Nagyova (Slovakia) 7-5 6-4

Denisa Chladkova (Czech Republic) beat Martina Muller (Germany) 6-3 7-5

29-Barbara Schett (Austria) beat Cara Black (Zimbabwe) 6-2 6-2

Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) beat Roberta Vinci (Italy) 6-3 6-2

16-Lisa Raymond (US) beat Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 6-4 6-2

Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spain) beat Angelika Roesch (Germany) 6-2 6-4

Wynne Prakusya (Indonesia) beat Jana Nejedly (Canada) 6-0 6-2