Greg starts with a win

13 April 2012

Greg Rusedski today beat Italy's Davide Sanguinetti and the rain to belatedly launch his Wimbledon campaign in style.

The British number three's first round match had been held over from Tuesday due to the bad weather, and a swirling wind meant conditions were still far from ideal when the players finally emerged at noon on court one.

But Rusedski started with an ace measured at 130mph and recovered from a brief lapse in the second set to record a morale-boosting 7-5 4-6 6-2 6-2 win, seconds before the rain began to fall.

The 30-year-old will now play eighth seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the second round at the All England Club.

Sanguinetti, a 'lucky loser' from qualifying ranked 112th in the world, actually fired down more aces than Rusedski - five to four - in the opening set, but significantly served five double faults.

Two of them came in the 12th and decisive game, Rusedski taking the first of two set points with a superb forehand winner down the line.

Rusedski has won just five out of 12 matches - including a dead rubber in the Davis Cup tie against Luxembourg - since being cleared of doping charges in March, and lost in the first round of the Stella Artois Championship to Hyung-Taik Lee.

He did manage to win two matches in a row on the ATP for the first time in 12 months at the Nottingham Open last week, but failing to defend his title there meant a further slide down the world rankings to 165th.

All looked good while he was serving well - another ace was clocked at 139mph - but two costly double faults allowed Sanguinetti to break with a running forehand winner down the line for a 4-3 lead.

The 32-year-old Italian, who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon on his debut in 1998 but has won only one more match here since, then served out to take the set 6-4 and level the match.

Court one was also the scene of Tim Henman's nerve-wracking first round victory and the home fans must have feared the worst.

But Rusedski eased the tension by claiming an early break of serve in the third set and, after saving a break back point to lead 4-1, broke Sanguinetti to love to take the set 6-2 and a two sets to one lead.

The second break of serve gave Rusedski the advantage of serving first in the fourth set, and Sanguinetti now looked completely disinterested.

Rusedski broke for a 2-0 lead and with his opponent playing like a man with a flight to catch, breezed through the rest of the set to complete victory in one hour 57 minutes.

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