Wimbledon 2026 LIVE: Alex de Minaur opens with straight sets victory; Serena Williams, Maya Joint also in action

Alex de Minaur’s latest Wimbledon title assault is off to a perfect start, surviving an early challenge to eventually score a runaway straight-sets victory.

The 2024 quarter-finalist, who also made the round of 16 last year, had some tense moments in the opening set-and-a-half before breezing past Argentine grasscourt novice Roman Andres Burruchaga, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-0.

“I had a little bit of a nervy start. It’s never easy starting such an incredible tournament like Wimbledon,” de Minaur said on court.

“There are always those nerves, but I played better and better as the match went on. I’m super stoked to be in the next round.

“I love the grass, and love these courts – they suit my game – and I’m at my most dangerous when I’m being aggressive. I need to do a lot more of that, so hopefully next round I can do it from the start.”

De Minaur boldly declared pre-tournament that he wanted to break new ground at this year’s Wimbledon, and hopes to end the event with a top-five ranking for the first time.

He will need to negotiate a tricky set of opponents from now in order to achieve that.

Fifth-seeded de Minaur next faces a rematch of his s’Hertogenbosch semi-final from a few weeks ago against wily French veteran Adrian Mannarino, who easily dispatched his countryman Titouan Droguet, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.

The man who defeated de Minaur in that final, Kamil Majchrzak, would likely be waiting in the round of 32.

Mannarino managed only four games against de Minaur at s’Hertogenbosch, but is a former top-20 player who saves his best tennis for the grass.

Burruchaga, whose father Jorge scored the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 World Cup final, broke into the top 100 for the first time this year and this was his Wimbledon debut.

But that lack of experience mattered little as he snatched an unexpected 3-0 lead over de Minaur, one of the world’s best grasscourters.

De Minaur predictably worked his way into the match, breaking back in the fifth game, but found Burruchaga a difficult nut to crack.

The Argentine displayed decent-enough court craft and was not afraid to venture to the net, where he made some fine volleys, particularly in the opening set. But Burruchaga struggled there the longer the match went, winning only nine of 24 points compared to de Minaur’s 25 of 30.

De Minaur enjoyed some luck with a ball off the net post early in the tiebreak, but still went a mini-break down, only for Burruchaga to commit consecutive errors, including a double fault to give the Australian the edge.

De Minaur needed both his set points, winning the second of them when Burruchaga dragged a crosscourt backhand wide.

But the underdog remained a pesky proposition in the early going of the second set.

De Minaur ground out a tough hold to go 1-0 up, then had to stave off four break points two games later, including two in a row at 15-40.

Burruchaga wagged his finger after bringing up the fourth of them, but his celebrations were short-lived. De Minaur wriggled out of trouble, and did not concede another game for the contest as he advanced to the second round for the fifth straight year.

The news was not as good for fellow Australians Talia Gibson and Rinky Hijikata, who lost deciding sets to 21st-seeded Czech Marie Bouzkova and Dutchman Jesper de Jong, respectively.

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