Safina struggles against injury to chase dream

Top seed Dinara Safina struggled against a knee injury to edge into the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday as she chases her dream of winning a grand slam.

The 23-year-old Russian, who earlier this month lost in the French Open final for the second year running, said she had been suffering from tendinitis, which forced top men's seed Rafael Nadal to pull out of Wimbledon before it started.

Safina, who has failed to get past round three in her six previous visits to the All England Club, had to stop mid-game during her 7-5 6-3 win over Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino to take an anti-inflammatory pill.

"It has been bothering me since April," she told reporters. "It's so painful to go on the knee on serve."

"I had to take one more (pill) during the match because at one moment I just could not go down anymore on my knee it was so painful... hopefully I can play. It's nothing that's killing me."

World number one Safina, who also lost in this year's Australian Open final, said in the past her desire to win a grand slam had stopped her focusing on the match in hand.

"It's not easy just to go out there and have fun and play," she said. "But somehow I need to let it go, to just focus more on my game than on the result of the match."

"My dream was to become number one as a kid. And now to hold a trophy from the grand slam, it's my other big dream.

The now familiar tide of Murray-mania swept across Wimbledon on Tuesday as Andy Murray began his bid to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's singles champion in glorious sunshine at the All England Club.

The world number three appeared to have taken a leaf out of former local favourite Tim Henman's Wimbledon manual as he teased, tortured and finally thrilled the expectant crowd with a 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 first round win over Robert Kendrick.

Kendrick had talked up his chances of gatecrashing the British party by declaring: "I'd love to disappoint a nation."

Luckily for the fans the American, who entertained the crowd with his acrobatic antics, dived out with a forehand error.

John McEnroe's assessment was that Murray had produced "a B performance" but he did conjure a moment of magic. Sprinting towards the baseline, he flicked a forehand winner over his shoulder which even brought a smile to the dour Scot's face.

However, Murray agreed with McEnroe's verdict.

"He (Kendrick) doesn't give you a whole lot of rhythm, I could have returned better and I didn't hit my groundstrokes as well as I would have liked... but it got better," he said.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic had to save two match points against unheralded Lucie Hradecka to reach the Wimbledon second round on Tuesday.

Fans clambered into precarious positions to catch a glimpse as the drama unfolded on the intimate court four, where the 2008 French Open champion struggled to contain the ambitious Czech's lethal double-handed backhand in a 5-7 6-2 8-6 victory.

The 26-year-old Hradecka, whose left thigh was strapped, had a determined air about her as she made the 13th seed's shots look as flimsy as the wispy layers of the Serb's skirt.

The Czech pumped her fists in celebration as Ivanovic's backhand went long to hand her the first set on her first appearance in the main draw at Wimbledon.

The 21-year-old Serb, a semi-finalist here in 2007, swapped her racket at 2-2 in the second which seemed to do the trick as she immediately broke and did not drop another game in the set.

Ivanovic, who looked to be tossing the ball slightly out of line before serving, broke in the ninth game of the decider.

She was then serving for the match but Hradecka fired another unreachable backhand to save match point.

After breaking, the Czech then held and earned two match points of her own but Ivanovic smashed her way out of trouble.

Ivanovic, who has slipped from top of the rankings to 12th over the past year after some indifferent performances, will face Italian Sara Errani for a place in the third round.

Mercurial Russian Marat Safin tumbled out of his 10th and final Wimbledon on Tuesday but he had no regrets and cannot wait to clear his head on holiday.

"I need to get out of my brain and start from a new page," he said after an ignominious 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 first-round defeat by American qualifier Jesse Levine.

He said what he wanted most was "definitely a huge vacation... I need more than a couple of months just to start all over again from the blank paper".

It was a sad end at Wimbledon for Safin, one of the most talented but temperamental players in the game.

He won the U.S. Open in 2000 with a dazzling defeat of Pete Sampras and made a stunning comeback in 2005 to win the Australian Open.

"I should probably have won a couple more but I'm pretty satisfied with what I did," the 29-year-old said."

The year 38-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm last played at Wimbledon the Spice Girls had their first UK number one single and Bill Clinton was re-elected president of the United States.

Despite her age, the Japanese player gave 18-year-old Danish opponent Caroline Wozniacki a run for her money on her return to the tournament on Tuesday, taking the first set and going 3-1 up in the second before tiredness and injury got the better of her.

As Date Krumm grew more weary, world number nine Wozniacki, who was born a year after the Japanese made her first Wimbledon appearance, came into her stride, taking the opportunity to get back into the contest and win 5-7 6-3 6-1.

Date Krumm, the oldest woman in this year's singles draw, is making her 30th Grand Slam appearance after coming out of retirement last year having been encouraged to return to the game by her racing driver husband Michael Krumm.

Grimacing with every shot Date Krumm slowly crumpled and Wozniacki, fresh from winning her fifth career singles title at Eastbourne last week, ran away with the match, breaking twice to win four straight games and the final set.