Venus, Agassi through to round 2

Bill Barclay

Defending champion Venus Williams safely negotiated her opening round match against Japan's Shinobu Asagoe at Wimbledon on Tuesday despite never producing her best form.

The 21-year-old American second seed was made to sweat in her 6-2, 6-3 victory on Centre Court as she avoided a repeat of her shock first round loss at the French Open.

The day after top women's seed Martina Hingis lost in the first round there were no major shocks in scorching heat in south-west London.

American third seed Lindsay Davenport, beaten by Williams in last year's final, disposed of Slovakia's Martina Sucha 6-3, 6-3 from the baseline and without any fuss.

Compatriot Andre Agassi, the men's second seed, blew kisses to the Centre Court crowd after crushing Dutchman Peter Wessels 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 in his first round match.

Fifth seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and his girlfriend, Belgian seventh seed Kim Clijsters, also hot-footed it into the second round together with Yugoslav Jelena Dokic, the 14th seed.

Williams, also the U.S. Open champion, squandered a 3-1 lead in the opening set and trailed 2-0 in the second before asserting her authority over Asagoe.

"Sometimes you have to play 50 per cent, not 100. I was able to crawl out of it," said the American who admitted her mind kept straying back to her French Open defeat.

On court one in-form Hewitt was not detained for long by Swede Magnus Gustafsson.

DANGEROUS DENT

The 20-year-old Australian is buoyant after two successive grass court titles at Queen's Club and Den Bosch and he secured his second round place 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

"I'm not afraid to step out there against anyone on grass now," said Hewitt.

The victory stretched his winning streak on grass to 13 matches this year and set up an intriguing second-round match with big-hitting American 20-year-old Taylor Dent, who crushed Sergi Bruguera of Spain 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.

"I'm not going to take the match lightly at all, he's dangerous," Hewitt added.

Rising American star Andy Roddick too was through to the second round after beating Swiss qualifier Ivo Heuberger 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 on Monday.

The 18-year-old, hailed as the future of American tennis by compatriots Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, had too much power for his opponent in only his sixth tour-level match on grass.

Clijsters, made equally light work of her first round opponent, Giulia Casoni of Italy. The French Open finalist raced to a 6-2, 6-0 victory in 46 minutes.

Dokic, seeded 14th and a beaten semifinalist last year, sank Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios 7-5, 6-1. Eighteen-year-old Dokic sneaked a tight first set after trailing 4-5 in her match with De Los Rios on Court Three.

"I'm happy that I got through the first one, it's always the toughest one to get through," said Dokic.

The heat appeared to take its toll on men's 17th seed, Tommy Haas, who had to retire from his match against lucky loser Wayne Black of Zimbabwe when trailing two sets to one and 3-0.

BRITISH JOY

The German had treatment to his back in the first set and retired after complaining he felt unwell in the fourth set.

Ninth-seeded Frenchman Sebastian Grosjean, a semifinalist at the French Open earlier this month, saw off Michael Kratochvil of Switzerland 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

Tenth seed Thomas Enqvist also proved too strong for Czech Martin Damm, winning 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Briton Jamie Delgado, the world number 182, upset Ukraine's Andrei Medvedev 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 to become the fifth home player through to the men's second round.

In the women's draw there were straight sets wins for France's 33-year-old ninth seed Nathalie Tauziat and number 10 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa over Wynne Prakusya of Indonesia and Stephanie Foretz of France respectively.