Samantha Stosur is bracing for an explosive second-round showdown with Sabine Lisicki after launching her 14th Wimbledon campaign with a straight-sets victory over little-known Pole Magda Linette.
Australia's top-ranked player safely progressed with a trouble-free 7-5 6-3 win on Monday, but her "reward" is a dubious one.
Owner of the fastest recorded serve in women's tennis history, Lisicki surged past Stosur en route to the 2013 final at the All England Club.
The German also made the semi-finals in 2011, the quarters on three other occasions and looked in ominous touch on the London grass again on Monday in dispatching rising American Shelby Rogers 6-1 6-3 in less than an hour.
"I'm sure when she walks through the gates here she probably feels like she's No.1 in the world," Stosur said.
"You have to be aware of that and know she has a very big serve, she plays big and hits the ball hard.
"She absolutely plays aggressive. If she's on that day, you have got to be really willing to fight fire with fire and go after it."
Seeded 14th after her run to this month's French Open semi-finals, Stosur offset four aces with six double-faults but dropped serve just once in her 77-minute workout with Linette.
The former US Open champion was playing her first grand slam match under new coach Andrew Roberts, the Tasmanian helping Stosur during the grasscourt season following her split from long-time mentor David Taylor.
Roberts would have been impressed with Stosur's confident start as she held her opening two service games to love before breaking Linette to charge ahead 3-1.
But as the errors began to creep in, Stosur dropped serve and appeared to be heading to a tiebreaker until breaking the world No.92 for a second time to nab the opening set after 44 minutes.
Stosur cruised through the second set without facing a break point and clinched victory with an ace.
Sam Groth is the only other Australian in action on the opening day, up against Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori.
Big guns Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, seeded 15th and 19th respectively in the men's event, plus John Millman, Jordan Thompson, qualifiers Luke Saville and Matt Barton and Daria Gavrilova all play on Tuesday.
Share
