Murray & Serena Storm Through Wimbledon Opener

Andy Murray and Serena Williams put on a show for Centre Court on Saturday at Wimbledon, defeating Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round in mixed doubles.

“It was a great experience being back on Centre Court with Serena after the last year or so being tough. It was nice. I enjoyed it,” said Murray. “After the amount of success that someone like Serena has had for such a long period, to still be out there at 8:00 at night, having already won a singles [match] and just wanting to win and being competitive… That’s impressive.”

Murray/Williams opened the match by breaking Guarachi’s serve and held the lead throughout the match. A forehand return winner from Murray sealed the victory after one hour and 16 minutes. Next up for Murray/Williams are No. 14 seeds Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo.

“At some point I started feeling a lot of pressure. I have to do well because this match is so hyped that I want to see it. I didn’t even want to be in it. I just wanted to watch it,” joked Williams. “Maybe I’ll try to get a video of it or watch it somewhere. I think I was able to handle my nerves pretty good, do better than I thought I was going to do.”

Second-round mixed doubles action also took place on Saturday. Top seeds Bruno Soares and Nicole Melichar defeated Denys Molchanov and Galina Voskoboeva 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3. Joran Vliegen and Saisai Zheng upset second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Demi Schuurs 6-4, 7-5.

On Friday, #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe won his opening match with Venus Williams over Scott Clayton and Sarah Beth Grey 6-2, 6-3. 

“I got a text from [my coach]. He said, ‘Do you want to play doubles with Venus?’ I was like, ‘That’s a dumb question.’ The next day, we are doing two-hour doubles drills,” said Tiafoe. “I looked up to [Venus and Serena] all my life. Still do. It’s an honour to share the court with them.”