Serena and Djokovic up and running at Wimbledon

Defending champion Novak Djokovic moved confidently into the second round of Wimbledon with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Monday.

With no competitive matches in the build-up to the championships after his French Open final loss, Djokovic, on paper at least, had a dangerous opponent in the 33rd-ranked Kohlschreiber.

But the 28-year-old Serbian was clinical on the big points and never looked like becoming the first defending champion to fall in the first round since 2003.

He broke in the 10th game of the opener and squeezed the throttle at the same stage of the second, securing a two-set lead with backhand winner and a roar of delight.

Top seed Djokovic cruised through the third set.

"This is the cradle of our sport, it doesn't get any bigger than Wimbledon Centre Court and it's an honour and to be defending champion," he told the BBC.

"I had a tough opponent, he can be very tricky especially on the grass but I stayed composed."

Serena overcomes early wobble to ease through

Serena Williams dusted off a few cobwebs to power into the second round at Wimbledon on Monday, surviving an early wobble against Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan to win 6-4, 6-1.

The world number one made an inauspicious start to her bid for a sixth Wimbledon title and a second non-calendar year grand slam when the lowly-ranked Russian broke in the opening game and held on bravely as Williams slowly warmed up.

The frustration was clearly telling on the American as she trailed by a break and 3-2 in the opening set, an audible obscenity earning her a warning from the umpire.

She received little respite from Gasparyan, whose rasping groundstrokes frequently found their target, but Williams discovered her rhythm, broke to level for 3-3 and did not look back.

The 33-year-old broke again when Gasparyan netted a backhand to clinch the first set after 48 minutes and powered away, breaking twice in the second set and crunching away a smash on match point to clinch victory.

Healthy Sharapova back firing on all cylinders

When Maria Sharapova miserablly exited the French Open four weeks ago it was to a soundtrack of her coughing but the trademark scream was back at full volume on Monday when she blew past Briton Johanna Konta in the first round at Wimbledon.

Having returned to the United States to rest and recover from a virus that contributed to her fourth-round defeat by Czech Lucie Safarova, Sharapova looked revitalised as she triumphed 6-2, 6-2 in the sunshine of Centre Court.

Konta, who switched allegiance from Australia three years ago, came into the match on a high after taking a couple of seeded scalps in Eastbourne last week but never looked close to derailing the fourth seed.

Sharapova has spent the last few weeks not overdoing things to ensure she fully recovered and getting back in the grass groove without the pressure of entering any of the warm-up tournaments.

Although her serve was a little shaky, she eased through the first set, giving the home fans little to bite on.

Konta eventually loosened up, started unloading and briefly rallied with a break in the opening game of the second set. But Sharapova, one of the most competitive players on the circuit, immediately pumped up her own power -- and the grunt decibels -- and broke straight back.

From then on Konta, ranked 126 and facing a top five player for the first time in her career, struggled to deal with the strength and depth of Sharapova's ground strokes and started sending her own short and wide as the matched moved inexorably towards its expected straight-sets conclusion.

It is 11 years since the 17-year-old Sharapova pulled off one of the great Wimbledon shocks when she blew away defending champion Serena Williams in the final and though she has been at or around the top of the game ever since, she has reached one subsequent Wimbledon final, losing to Petra Kvitova in 2011.

"The first match of Wimbledon is never the easiest and especially against an opponent who has had a good few weeks and is a crowd favourite," Sharapova said.

"But I wanted to focus on myself as I haven't played for a couple of weeks.

"I returned really well today -- she served pretty hard, and I was able to get a bit of an advantage there."

Hewitt waves goodbye after five-set thriller

Fighting tooth and nail as only he knows how old warrior Lleyton Hewitt waved an emotional goodbye to Wimbledon after losing a five-set thriller to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen on Monday.

Thirteen years after beating Argentina's David Nalbandian to win the title, the 34-year-old, who will retire after next year's Australian Open, went toe to toe with fellow veteran Nieminen but went down 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9.

Roared on by his fans all dressed in gold Hewitt saved two consecutive match points at 4-5 in the fifth set, but eventually succumbed in a match spanning four hours.

It was the former world number one Australian's 56th five-setter in a superb grand slam career in which he also beat Pete Sampras to win the 2001 U.S. Open.

Kyrgios argues with umpire in easy Wimbledon win

Australia's Nick Kyrgios denied calling an official "dirty scum" but could find himself in trouble following a bad-tempered exchange in his first-round victory over Diego Schwartzman at Wimbledon on Monday.

Kyrgios was two sets up in his 6-0, 6-2, 7-6(6) win over the Argentine when he confronted umpire Mohamed Lahyani about a contentious call in the third set.

The Australian demanded a referee come onto court to clarify the rules and was then heard saying "dirty scum".

"I wasn't referring to the ref at all there," Kyrgios, who turned last year's tournament on its head by knocking out then world number one Rafa Nadal to reach the quarter-finals, told reporters.

"It was towards myself. But, yeah, I mean, obviously I knew you guys were going to ask me about that."

When asked why he would call himself that he replied: "Because I can."

The argument arose when Schwartzman was awarded a point after a shot that was originally called out was deemed to have hit the baseline after a challenge.

Kyrgios claimed the point should have been replayed because he heard the linesman's call before he played his shot.

Asked how he would feel if he was fined for his outburst, the 20-year-old replied in typically feisty fashion: "Wouldn't bother me one bit."

The incident largely overshadowed a match in which Kyrgios reminded Wimbledon fans of the destructive weapons that stunned Nadal last year.

Twelve months after reaching the last eight on his Wimbledon debut, he lit the fuse on his firecracker forehand to crush Schwartzman.

Kyrgios tore through the first set in 17 minutes, eased through the second and, after suffering a brief wobble following the argument in the third, edged a close-fought tiebreaker.

He is yet to realise the enormous potential he showed in crunching through the Wimbledon draw last year, injury and loss of form interrupting his progress in 2015.

The world number 29 split with coach Todd Larkham a week before Wimbledon, but it seems to have had little negative impact on his game if his 85-minute win on the opening day of the Championships was anything to go by.

Nishikori troubled but not floored by calf strain

Kei Nishikori shook off a calf strain that had hindered his Wimbledon build-up as he survived a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 test against Italian Simone Bolelli to reach the second round of the grasscourt major on Monday.

Concerns that the injury which forced the Japanese to retire from the Halle semi-finals would scupper his Wimbledon campaign surfaced midway through the fifth set when he had to get his stricken left calf re-strapped while leading 3-0.

Despite being in some discomfort, fifth-seeded Nishikori kept going for three hours and 22 minutes to win his second successive five-set marathon against Bolelli at Wimbledon after the pair went the distance in the third round last year.

"It's a little bit sore from last week but it's getting better and it wasn't easy to play for three hours but it should be okay for the next match," Nishikori said moments after walking off court.

Nishikori, who last year became the first Asian man to contest a grand slam singles final when he finished runner-up at the U.S. Open, will have 48 hours to regain his fitness before facing Colombian Santiago Giraldo.