Wimbledon latest: Nadal through but O’Brien crashes out

It took just 17 minutes for Date-Krumm to wrap up the first set after an error-strewn start for Britain’s No 5.

O’Brien, 25 from Hessle, performed with much more promise in the second set but she was ultimately no match for the 40-year-old Date-Krumm, who rounded off victory in a tougher second set.

Home supporters on the new Court Three may have had high hopes for the Briton, but their confidence was soon sapped after the first-set whitewash.

O’Brien got off to the worst possible start, double-faulting to hand Date-Krumm a morale-boosting opening break before her opponent held serve comfortably.

O’Brien again double-faulted on the second of two break points to give Date-Krumm a 3-0 lead before a third double in the fifth gave Date-Krumm three break points. She needed just one, dropping a cheeky slice at the net before the former world number four served out to clinch the first set.

Sensing the Briton was low on confidence, home fans got behind O’Brien and she responded at the beginning of the second set, with more guile in her serve and baseline strokes.

The 25-year-old powered down her first ace and Date-Krumm then went long to give the Briton her first game of the match.

The Yorkshire player’s attempt to stay in touch with Date-Krumm stuttered in the third game when she lost her service after she was unable to return a strong cross-court backhand.

O’Brien showed promise as she broke Date-Krumm’s serve to level the second set at 2-2, but her own service let her down again as the 40-year-old took the lead once more.

O’Brien pulled it back to 3-3 but she lost her serve again, causing her to let out a despairing cry.

The home player then rallied with a much-improved performance to stay in the game before Date-Krumm won a tight line call to leave O’Brien serving to stay in the match at 5-3 down.

She saved one match point before holding on to leave Date-Krumm with a chance to serve out for the match.

The Japanese faltered, to allow O’Brien to pull back to 5-5, before she came back to win two successive games to clinch the match.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal got the defence of his Wimbledon crown off to a winning start as he saw off the challenge of the unheralded American Michael Russell on Centre Court this afternoon.

The top seed brushed past the veteran world No 90 in straight sets, winning 6-4 6-2 6-2, and finding his rhythm after a wobbly opening which saw him suffer the first break of serve.

Having fallen 4-2 behind in the opening set, the 10-time Grand Slam winner broke twice in a row to take it, and then saw out the second and third sets with relative ease.

Continuing on with the womans singles, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva survived a first-round scare to defeat promising young American Alison Riske 6-0 3-6 6-3 this afternoon.

The second seed is one of the players expected to mount a serious title challenge after her run to the final 12 months ago, where she lost to Serena Williams, but she will certainly have to raise her game from this performance.

Venus Williams made a triumphant return to Wimbledon by sweeping aside Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3 6-1 in their first-round showdown on Court Two.

Five-time champion Williams was in full cry as she bludgeoned the world No 97 from Uzbekistan into submission with a typically powerful display.