Tennis: Venus blows away the cobwebs

Venus Williams shook off a few flakes of rust this afternoon to take her place in the Wimbledon second round.

Williams possessed too much power for the diminutive Shinobu Asagoe of Japan, eventually marching through 6-2 6-3 in 66 minutes.

But it was by no means a comfortable afternoon for the American number two seed, who had not played a match since being dumped out of the French Open first round by Austria’s Barbara Schett.

She won the first set despite losing her service in the fifth game after spraying a string of unforced errors around Centre Court.

The signs that Asagoe was growing in confidence were clear, Williams clinching that first set on her seventh set point in a marathon eighth game with a typically rasping cross-court backhand winner.

Williams promptly lost the first two games of the second set and Asagoe had a string of break chances to go up 4-1.

She couldn’t take them, the danger was averted and suddenly the Williams radar on her powerful groundstrokes returned.

Asagoe, ranked 62 in the world, rarely looked like taking another game as the flourish returned to the Williams groundstrokes.

The end duly came with a booming 114mph serve which Asagoe could not return.