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Kawa edges Canada's Marino in first round

LONDON Poland's Katarzyna Kawa converted two pivotal break points late in the match to secure a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Vancouver's Rebecca Marino in first-round women's action Monday at Wimbledon.

Marino was serving for the match in Game 10 of the third set, but didn't get a match point opportunity as Kawa picked up her fourth break to tie the set 5-5.

After winning the next game to take a 6-5 lead, Kawa won the match by converting her fifth of 10 breakpoint chances when Marino hit an unforced error while facing match point.

Marino had six aces to Kawa's three, and Kawa, ranked No. 132 in the world, committed seven double faults, four more than Marino. But Marino had 58 unforced errors in the match to 50 for Kawa.

The No. 104-ranked Marino was competing in the Wimbledon main women's draw for the first time since 2011.

The other three Canadians in the main draws are set to play their opening matches Tuesday: Sixth seed Felix Auger-aliassime, 13th seed Denis Shapovalov and Bianca Andreescu.

These days, Novak Djokovic makes history just about every time he wins another match. On Monday, the top-ranked Serb did just that at Wimbledon.

Djokovic, a six-time champion at the All England Club, beat Kwon Soon-woo 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court, his 80th victory at the grass-court major. With it, he became the first man or woman to win that many matches at each of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

“It's always a very unique match to play as the defending champion, first on the grass,” said Djokovic, who won his 22nd straight match at the tournament. “Other than this year that Wimbledon made a change so you could practise before the tournament starts, it was always coming out on the untouched grass. It's really a unique and special feeling in our sport.”

Djokovic was playing for the first time since losing to Rafael Nadal

last month in the French Open quarterfinals.

It didn't all go his way on Monday, however.

With the roof closed because of sporadic rain, Kwon was able to pick his spots with his booming forehand. It all came together in the second set, and even continued into the third, but Djokovic stepped it up and played like he usually plays in southwest London — unbeatable.

Meanwhile, French Open finalist Casper Ruud won his opening match. The third-seeded Norwegian defeated Albert Ramos-vinolas 7-6 (1), 7-6 (9), 6-2.

Emma Raducanu took to Centre Court for the first time. The 19-year-old British player, who won the U.S. Open last year, was playing at the All England Club for the first time since retiring from her fourth-round match a year ago.

“It's an incredibly special feeling to be coming back here to Wimbledon,” said the 10th-seeded Raducanu, who beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-4, 6-4.

The first player to reach the second round was Alison Riske. The 28th-seeded American defeated Ylena In-albon of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4.

Other seeded women who advanced were No. 2 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, No. 3 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, and No. 29 Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.

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2022-06-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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