LONDON — Ten years after his first Wimbledon championship, Roger Federer opened play on Centre Court as defending champion and looked right as home as he dismantled Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-0.
This was a grass-court clinic lasting 68 minutes. Federer had 32 winners, seven aces and just six unforced errors. He won 90 percent of the points when he put his first serve in. When his serve is clicking, Federer usually is unbeatable. On this day, he won his first 15 service points and 24 out of the first 25.
“I’m happy to get out of there early and quickly,” Federer said. “So it was a perfect day.”
Another Wimbledon champion, 2002 winner Lleyton Hewitt, displayed his grass-court prowess by upending 11th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
Andy Murray, the U.S. Open champion who again tries to become the first British man to win the trophy since Fred Perry in 1936, got off to a strong start with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over Benjamin Becker of Germany.
In women’s play, there was an early upset as fifth-seeded Sara Errani was ousted by Puerto Rican teenager Monica Puig 6-3, 6-2.
Second-seeded Victoria Azarenka overcame a right knee injury from a scary fall beating Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal 6-1, 6-2.
And third-seeded Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, came through a first-set tiebreaker and beat 37th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic of France 7-6 (5), 6-3.