LONDON: Serena Williams moved past the halfway mark in her quest for a rare calendar year grand slam and Novak Djokovic clicked smoothly back into gear as the 129th Wimbledon Championships opened for business on Monday.

Serial title winner Williams, 33, has the Australian Open and French Open under her belt this year and her bid for a sixth Wimbledon crown began with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Russian debutant Margarita Gasparyan.

She swaggered on to Court One under sunny skies but took a while to warm to the task of chalking up a 22nd consecutive victory in grand slams, dropping her mighty serve in the opening game and looking rattled.

World No.1 Williams was warned for an audible obscenity when trailing 3-2 but soon transferred her aggression into some belting winners to overwhelm the world No.113.

Only two women in the professional era have won all four grand slams in the same year — Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988 — but 20-times major singles champion Williams is closing in.

Djokovic elected not to play any warm-up tournaments on grass prior to arriving in South West London but the 28-year-old defending champion quickly found his feet on the slick Center Court turf against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Like Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, who crushed Djokovic’s hopes of completing his career grand slam in the French Open final, Kohlschreiber boasts a lethal backhand but the world No.33 never threatened a first-day shock to rival Lleyton Hewitt’s exit in 2003 when he was also trying to defend the title.

Djokovic chose his moments to push his shoulder against the door, breaking in the 10th game of the opening two sets, and sauntered through with minimum of fuss 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

The crowd appreciated the Serb’s display, which included trying to usher a small bird off the court in the first set.

When Maria Sharapova miserably exited the French Open four weeks ago it was to a soundtrack of her coughing but the trademark scream was back at full volume when she blew past Briton Johanna Konta.

Having returned to the United States to rest and recover from a virus that contributed to her fourth-round defeat by Czech Lucie Safarova, Sharapova looked revitalized as she triumphed 6-2, 6-2 in the sunshine of Center Court.

Lleyton Hewitt’s Wimbledon farewell ended in an agonizing defeat as Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen out-lasted the 2002 champion 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 in a thrilling first round clash on Monday.

Hewitt is embarking on a prolonged goodbye tour before retiring after next year’s Australian Open and he was hoping for one last hurrah on his 17th and final visit to the All England Club.

But, despite saving three match points, the 34-year-old Australian eventually succumbed in exactly four hours of grueling drama in the baking temperatures on Court Two.

Nieminen, also playing in his final Wimbledon, will face world No.1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the second round.

“To beat him here when it’s my last time here as well, it’s tough to find the words,” Nieminen said.

Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who joined the elite by winning the US Open last year, beat Hiroki Moriya of Japan 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(4) while Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, powered past China’s Xu Yifan 6-1, 6-1.

Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, the former world No.1, beat Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 6-1.

Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro became the biggest name to fall, the ninth seed thrashed 6-2, 6-0 by Jelena Ostapenko.