Murray keeps British faithful happy

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London: The now familiar tide of Murray-mania swept across Wimbledon on Tuesday as Andy Murray began his bid to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's singles champion in glorious sunshine at the All England Club.

The world number three appeared to have taken a leaf out of former local favourite Tim Henman's Wimbledon manual as he teased, tortured and finally thrilled the expectant crowd with a 7-5 6-7 6-3 6-4 first round win over Robert Kendrick.

Kendrick had talked up his chances of gatecrashing the British party by declaring: "I'd love to disappoint a nation."

Luckily for the fans the American, who entertained the crowd with his acrobatic antics, dived out with a forehand error.

John McEnroe's assessment was that Murray had produced "a B performance" but he did conjure a moment of magic. Sprinting towards the baseline, he flicked a forehand winner over his shoulder which even brought a smile to the dour Scot's face.

However, Murray agreed with McEnroe's verdict.

"He (Kendrick) doesn't give you a whole lot of rhythm, I could have returned better and I didn't hit my groundstrokes as well as I would have liked... but it got better," he said.

With the sun beating down on southwest London, record crowds again flocked to Wimbledon for the second day running as Murray made his much-anticipated appearance on Centre Court.

But before the main Murray show began, there had been plenty of supporting acts around to entertain the fans on day two.

MINIMUM FUSS

Venus Williams performed her duties as champion with the minimum of fuss to stride into the second round with a 6-3 6-2 win over Switzerland's Stefanie Voegele.

Williams, described by American great Martina Navratilova as having "the wingspan of a 747", used her long limbs to great effect to easily fly past Wimbledon debutant Voegele.

"It's the best place to be when you are a pro tennis player and I savour every blade of it," said Williams, who is chasing a sixth title at Wimbledon. "I've had that crown for several years and I want to make it mine again."

Marat Safin lost his chance to ever win the men's title when he waved goodbye to Wimbledon. His 10th and final appearance ended in a 6-2 3-6 7-6 6-4 defeat by obscure American Jesse Levine.