The 118th Wimbledon Tennis Championships Began in London on Monday - 2004-06-21

On Monday, the 118th round of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships began in London. In the women's singles, Martina Navratilova, an American player of Czech descent who has previously won the championship trophy 9 times, returned to the women's singles stage at Wimbledon for the first time after 10 years of playing doubles. She defeated Colombian opponent Catalina Castillo in 46 minutes with a score of 1-6, 0-6. The 47-year-old player lost in the first round of the French Open last month against Argentine player Gisela Dulko. Martina first played on Wimbledon’s grass courts 31 years ago, which is her favorite surface. The veteran player won the Wimbledon singles championship six times in a row between 1982 and 1987 and had not played in the Wimbledon singles since the 1994 final, where she lost to Spanish player Conchita Martínez. Upon her arrival at the match on Court No. 2 at the Wimbledon Club, spectators warmly welcomed her, applauding and standing in pride. Martina took full control of the match from the very beginning. In other women's singles matches, Ai Sugiyama, the 11th seed from Japan, Tatiana Panova, and Vera Zvonareva, the 12th seed from Russia, also advanced to the next round. In the men's singles, Swiss player Roger Federer, the top seed and defending champion, defeated British player Alex Bogdanovic in straight sets with scores of 0-6, 3-6, 3-6. Federer, who won the Australian Open championship last February, is aiming to win a Grand Slam title for the third time. He stated, 'I won here last year, but that doesn't mean I will win again this year.' Meanwhile, Australian player Lleyton Hewitt defeated his Austrian opponent Jürgen Melzer in straight sets with scores of 2-6, 4-6, 2-6.