By Ros Satar
The British women who were awarded wildcards took to the court today, with all of them exiting in the first round.
Flavia Pennetta def. Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-1
Elena Baltacha was the first of the wildcards up on a grey (but thankfully dry) morning in Wimbledon, in the battle of the returning crocks.
Going down a break immediately was probably not part of her master plan, and she remained in contention with Pennetta, also coming back after an injury layoff.
The second set started in the same way, an immediate break but this time Pennetta seemed to find her groove, and Baltacha just lacked the consistency to make a dent in the second set.
Baltacha had already used up her protected ranking at Roland-Garros in a decision to get used to be back on the main stage.
Camila Giorgi def. Samantha Murray 6-3, 6-4
The British no. 7 suffered a couple of early breaks in each set against Italy’s Giorgi, who made it as far as the R16 last year before being halted by last year’s finalist, Agnieszka Radwanska.
Jelena Jankovic def. Johanna Konta 6-2, 7-5
It might have been a slow start for Konta who was broken in her first two service games but she put up a spirited fight in the second set, at times looking as though she could take this into a decider.
Going toe-to-toe with a former world no. 1, and another player who has made it to the fourth round, a gutting double fault at handed Jankovic a break to lead 6-5.
Konta certainly showed what she was capable of, but needs some fine tuning.
Garbine Muguruza def. Anne Keothavong 6-4, 6-0
After the shock of Rafael Nadal’s exit, during Andy Murray’s match – Anne Keothavong was placed on Centre Courtas the evening light dwindled.
Keothavong was matching the young Spaniard step for step until a careless game, broken to love to give her the lead 5-4.
But the 19 year-old (and Spain’s no. 3) was relentless, as the pace and variety of shot made for an unbroken run of eight games to take the set.