Roger Federer opened the defense of his Wimbledon title with a straight-sets win over British wild card Alex Bogdanovic, while former champions Goran Ivanisevic and Venus Williams also advanced.
Top seed Federer beat 20-year-old Bogdanovic, who has never won a professional tennis title, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in 80 minutes. Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, the 13th seed, lost to Croatian Ivo Karlovic. In her first Wimbledon singles match since 1994, nine-time champion Martina Navratilova lost just one game in recording the first victory at this year's championships.
Federer, the 22-year-old Australian Open champion, entered the third Grand Slam of the year at London's All England Club with five titles this season. He has already won a tournament on grass this season—the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany — and has now triumphed at his last 18 matches on the surface.
"It's important to get a good start because once you're leading you can relax more," Federer told reporters. "He couldn't really hurt me on my own serve."
In a match punctuated by rain intervals, Ivanisevic, playing at Wimbledon for the first time since he defeated Australian Pat Rafter to take the title in 2001, beat Russian No. 31 seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
The Croat, with career earnings of $19.8 million and 22 singles titles, has suffered from a long-term shoulder injury, which had prevented him from defending his title in 2002 and from competing last year.
Navratilova Wins
Having entered the tournament as a wild card, he will now play the winner of the tie between Britain's Jamie Delgado and Filippo Volandri of Italy.
Navratilova, who at 47 was 23 years older than Colombian opponent Catalina Castano, dropped her only game when leading 5-0 in the second set. She wrapped up victory in 46 minutes on her fifth match point as Castano pushed a forehand wide.
The Prague-born U.S.-citizen became the oldest player to win a singles match at the championships since the game went fully professional in 1968.
"That's what I live for, breaking all kinds of records," she told reporters. "When people say 'Why are you doing it?' I say 'because I can."' Navratilova next faces 23rd seed Jelena Dokic or Gisela Dulko.
Women's No. 3 seed Williams, a two-time champion, made only 11 unforced errors in her 6-3, 6-0 win over Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian of Switzerland. The Florida-based 24-year-old could face her sister Serena in the final for the third successive year.
'Mix It Up'
"You have to mix it up. If you constantly come to the net someone's going to know it," she said. "If you can play from the baseline and come in, this is trickier to me."
Big server Karlovic, who is 6-foot-10 tall and ranked 62nd in the world, recovered from losing the first set to defeat Srichaphan 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. The Thai entered the tournament after winning the Nottingham Open on grass on Saturday. Karlovic beat defending champion Lleyton Hewitt at the same stage last year.
Hewitt, whose world ranking has fallen from No. 1 to 11th, put last year's exit behind him as he beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer in straight sets. The Australian broke his opponent's serve five times to win 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
"Once I went two sets to love up, from then it was going to be pretty hard for him to come back," Hewitt said. "I feel like I'm capable of beating anyone."
Sweden's Thomas Johansson defeated 29th seed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany in five sets, while Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat Holland's Raemon Sluiter in four.
British wild card Amanda Janes, ranked 235 in the world, surprised No. 11 seed Ai Sugiyama by winning the first set of their first round match. Sugiyama, of Japan, rallied to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Russia's No. 12 seed Vera Zvonareva beat Austria's Samantha Stosur in straight sets, and France's Emilie Loit was the first seed to fall, losing 6-1, 6-2 to Russia's Tatiana Panova.