A favoured son out on first day

It rained in Wimbledon at 4.27 p.m. The covers were pulled, the ball boys clapped. It must be summer. One of Wimbledon's charms remains its ability to face the hum-drum boredom of rain-delayed tennis with the vigour and light spirits of Julie Andrews skipping down a mountain.

Another charm is watching its seeds go out. Bye, bye Greg Rusedski.

Still, between and after the drizzle the crowd witnessed several big names advance in the first matches of the 2000 championships. Venus and Serena Williams were inimitably doing it for themselves, while Pete Sampras toyed with his first round opponent Jiri Vanek and Martina Hingis put away the Spain's Angeles Montolio.

Unseeded Anna Kournikova also brightened a dank day on Centre Court. Accepting her fourth set-point to open up a lead against France's Sandrine Testud, she emerged after a rain break to lose the second set but win the third and a place in the next round. Thankfully too. Defeat would have been too much for the leering teenage crowd, never mind the 18-year-old Russian, who, straight-faced, said on Sunday at an underwear launch in London: "I'm not here to talk about personal things. I'm here to talk about the bra."

But the Williams sisters are once again attracting more attention than anyone, with the obvious exception of Kournikova, and could find family ties strained if they end up facing each other. That could happen if they stick around for the second week.

Their original-minded and oddly colourful father Richard pricked ears before the French Open two weeks ago when he declared that the two were considering retiring from the game.

Serena, the younger sister with a US Open title under her belt, and the elder Venus who has still to win a Grand Slam, appeared to feel that, as teenagers, it was probably a premature statement. Richard is known for saying more than his prayers but his daughters are loyal. "Yeh, I'm definitely considering retiring in five, six years," said 18-year-old Serena. "My dad is really a man that's into education. You never know what can happen. One day you can be in a car accident and never be able to walk again."

Serena, despite a 12-minute first service game, controlled her match with little strain against the Czech Republic's Asa Carlsson, winning 6-3, 6-2 and showing no sign of the knee injury that has kept her out of competitive tennis since April.

Venus, also recovering from a wrist injury that had kept her off court for six months up until the French Open, breezed past Kveta Hrdlickova.

It took Venus 56 minutes to polish off her Czech opponent 6-3, 6-1, just one minute longer than Hingis took to dispose of Montolio.

While Sampras soared, Greg Rusedski struggled and finally sunk against American Vince Spadea. Spadea is either a natural born loser or the luckiest player alive. Still to win a singles career title, he has nonetheless earned $1,922,123 and was desperately trying to shake off a 21-match losing streak.

In the end Rusedski survived four match points before unconvincingly coming to the net to put the ball long and go out in five sets, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 9-7.