Venus delivers knockout blow

Venus Williams eased past British teenager Jane O'Donoghue to get her campaign for a third consecutive Wimbledon title up and running on Centre Court today.

O'Donoghue, the British No7, was beaten 6-1, 6-1 but warmed up the crowd during her unlikely 45 minutes of fame.

Wild card O'Donoghue got on the scoreboard in the fourth game of the first set and greeted her sweeping cross-court forehand by punching the air with both hands.

Better was to come in the second game of the second set when two jarring low shots down the line on to Williams' forehand helped her to break the world's top player.

But Williams, watched by heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, made no more mistakes and cruised through the remainder of the match to book a second round meeting with Virginia Ruano Pascual, last year's conqueror of Martina Hingis.

O'Donoghue insisted the experience had whetted her appetite for the big occasion. "I felt I did myself justice," she said. "I was up against the best player in the world and I thought I did quite well.

"Venus served quite well and I struggled to make a lot of returns but I enjoyed every minute of it. Ten minutes before I went on court I had a lot of butterflies, which was understandable, but once I hit my first few balls I settled down.

"It's a place everybody wants to play and, now I've had a taste, I want more of it."

Williams paid tribute to the 19-year-old from Wigan and tipped her to break through into the top 100. "To be honest, she played very well," said the champion. "I could see she had a game plan. She came to play aggressively and take her opportunities. But I'm so comfortable on grass. I've had a lot more experience and that's what really counted. I'm used to a player coming out and playing 100 per cent against me."