LONDON -- World No. 1 Iga Swiatek cruised into the Wimbledon second round with a 6-1, 6-3 win over China's Lin Zhu on Monday, while American and world No. 4 Jessica Pegula also advanced with a hard-fought 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-3 win over compatriot Lauren Davis.
The news wasn't as good for American Coco Gauff. She was surprised at a Grand Slam tournament again by Sofia Kenin, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round.
Swiatek, who won the French Open title for the third time last month to make it four Grand Slam crowns, has yet to get past the fourth round of the London major. But the 22-year-old looked good in her movement on the surface and showed no signs of any effects of the illness that had ruled her out of her Bad Homburg semifinal on Friday.
"I felt really confident," said Swiatek, a former junior champion at Wimbledon. "I felt like I did a very good job. I feel really good after Roland Garros. After Roland Garros I took some time to appreciate what happened.
"Last year it was my second Grand Slam [at the French Open], and it felt overwhelming. This time I could focus on celebrating and actually at getting back to work with more peace in my head."
Zhu, ranked 34th in the world, earned a break point in the first game but Swiatek won 11 points in a row to sprint into a 3-0 lead.
Another break put Swiatek, a renowned slider on clay and hard courts who has often struggled with her movement on grass, firmly in the driving seat. Zhu saved two set points at 5-0, but Swiatek sealed the first set a game later with a powerful crosscourt forehand winner.
Play was interrupted by rain in the second set but resumed after the roof on Court One was shut. Once back on the court, Swiatek needed only seven minutes to win the two games she needed and sealed victory with a backhand winner.
Swiatek wasn't the only high seed to triumph.
Davis struggled to find her range from the start and was broken in the first game. That set the tone for the next few games as she racked up the unforced errors and Pegula raced into a 4-0 lead in less than 15 minutes.
Davis finally found her forehand power to get on the scoreboard, but Pegula's pinpoint backhand meant she never got close to breaking back. The Australian Open quarterfinalist wrapped up the first set comfortably.
It was a different story in the second set, Davis making sure she held serve in the opening game with a couple of drop shots, forcing Pegula to go long, and held again to lead 2-1.
Both players struggled with the gusty wind at times, but Davis began spraying the ball across the court with power and precision. A close second set lasting over an hour went to a tiebreak, with Davis winning to level the match.
Neither player looked entirely comfortable on the Court Two lawn, each making more than 30 unforced errors. But Pegula got the crucial break in the decider to lead 5-3 when Davis hit a backhand into the net.
Pegula closed out the match with a high backhand volley to advance to the second round, where she will face Spain's Cristina Bucsa.
"Definitely a tough match," Pegula said. "I think Lauren is a good grass-court player. Obviously, she's had great results here before, beating [Angelique] Kerber a few years ago.
"I hit kind of flat, so it stays low for her, especially on the grass," she added.
"It was very windy, so it was hard to really feel like you could get any momentum going because then you'd have the wind gusting. It would kind of keep you off balance and unstable."
The Gauff-Kenin opener was a back-and-forth matchup between two Americans who both have reached No. 4 in the rankings and been to a major final. One key difference: Kenin was the 2020 Australian Open champion, beating Gauff along the way to that trophy; Gauff was the runner-up at the 2022 French Open.
But a series of health issues -- a lingering foot injury, a bout with COVID-19, a right ankle problem -- and three first-round exits in a row at major tournaments all added up to a slide down the rankings. Coming into Wimbledon, Kenin was ranked 128th, so low she needed to go through three qualifying rounds just to get into the main draw, where she was placed in the bracket against none other than Gauff.
It's Gauff who is now in the top 10 at age 19 and seeded No. 7 at the All England Club, who was a Slam runner-up at last year's French Open, who was a quarterfinalist or better at four of the most recent nine majors. And yet it was Kenin who came out on top in their highlight-filled matchup.
"I know where I was," Kenin said, "and where I should be."
She was steadier than Gauff, with far fewer winners but also far fewer unforced errors.
Here's how Kenin described her mindset: "Don't get anxious or super excited."
Kenin also acknowledged afterward that she set out to "pick on her forehand a little bit more," referring to Gauff's weaker side.
"I didn't really put too much pressure on her," Gauff said. "I felt like she could make a ball on the court (and) didn't have to be as good -- and I wouldn't do much with it. That's what happened."
There were highlights galore, including one sequence each in which one player fell down to the grass, got herself back up and ended up taking the point.
"With three wins under her belt from 'qualies,' I knew she was going to be playing with confidence," Gauff said when asked about whether Kenin could return to the heights she once reached. "I mean, it's always possible for somebody to get back to that level. She's still on the younger end of her career. I think with how she played today, it shouldn't be too long."
It was at Wimbledon in 2019 that Gauff made her breakthrough and began to establish herself as a household name at age 15. She became the youngest player to qualify at the All England Club, then beat seven-time major champion Venus Williams in the first round en route to getting all the way to the fourth round before losing to eventual title winner Simona Halep.
Still not yet 20, Gauff is considered one of the rising stars of women's tennis. That label was applied to Kenin just three years ago.
"She had nothing to lose today. Obviously she won a Grand Slam, but she's in a tough spot in her career," Gauff said. "So I knew coming in she would play with a lot of motivation. It was all about how I would play today and how I would take care of my end of the court. I did in certain moments, but obviously not enough."
Also Monday, five-time Wimbledon champion Williams lost in the first round of her 24th appearance at the All England Club. The 43-year-old American fell 6-4, 6-3 to Elina Svitolina and had to have her right knee treated twice after falling to the ground on Centre Court.
Fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 win over American Katie Volynets.
Barbora Strycova, a semifinalist in 2019, became the first winner of this year's tournament by beating Maryna Zanevska 6-1, 7-5.
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.