体坛英语新闻：Nadal shocked at Wimbledon first round, Federer, Murray goes through

LONDON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- French Open champion Rafael Nadal suffered his first opening-round loss at a Grand Slam as he was shocked by Steve Darcis of Belgium, ranked No. 135 in the world.

But seven-time Roger Federer and local hero Andy Murray both eased past their first-round opponents.

Darcis took the biggest win of his career on No. 1 Court 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 6-4 in two hours and 55 minutes.

"I think today I serve very good," said Darcis. "I could use a lot of slice. And I think he didn't like it so much. Of course, he didn't play his best tennis. But I knew it is the first match on grass for him. Me, I played already four. So I think it helped me today."

Nadal, who was upset in the second round by Lukas Rosol last year, just won his record eighth title at Roland Garros but the 29-year-old Darcis proved too much for his younger opponent.

The fifth seed said, "Now is not the right time to talk about my knee. The only thing I can do is congratulate my opponent. It is not a tragedy, I lost, it is sport. I'm confident that I will recover and be ready for the next tournaments. I have played far more than I expected after my injury and I will try my best for the next couple of years."

Darcis had played at Wimbledon only three times before and in 12 of his 18 previous Grand Slam appearances he had lost in the first round. His best previous result at Wimbledon was to reach the second round in 2009.

Federer claimed his 67th match at Wimbledon by breezing past Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 in the first match on the Center Court.

The 31-year-old Federer, who came on court holding a 5-0 winning record against Hanescu, took only 69 minutes to finish off match. He landed 70 per cent of his first serves on target, and 90 per cent of them were winners.

"I pack my bags for five sets every single time, so I'm happy things went well today because we have seen surprise losses happen too often. I guess at the end of the day you would prefer to have it this way, walk away a winner instead of being out there five hours and losing in the first round," said Federer.

Murray, who lost to Federer in last year's final, met little trouble to defeat Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

"It was a good start," Murray said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself. I expect a lot of myself."

Big-serving Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, the sixth seed, unleashed 18 aces to beat David Goffin of Belgium 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-3.

In the women's events, second seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal 6-1, 6-2 and third seed Maria Sharapova of Russia defeated Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-6 (5), 6-3.