Williams in devastating form as favourite destroys hapless Minella in straight sets

Wham, bam, thank you mam.
Serena Williams, the defending champion, gave us a flavour of the power and precision that makes her an enduring phenomenon by pulverising Mandy Minella of Luxemburg 6-1, 6-3.
This demolition lasted just 57 minutes.

Demolition job: Serena Williams crushed Mandy Minella to get her Wimbledon campaign off and running

It was sometimes so one-sided that even the most flinty of hearts must have gone out to the blonde ranked 92nd in the world.
Certainly, the Centre Court crowd knew it was a mismatch of epic proportions and cheered Minella's every winning shot, first out of sympathy as much as encouragement and finally in recognition as she made it something vaguely akin to a contest in the second set.
While Maria Sharapova, bitter rival and verbal jouster of Williams, laboured in the first set of her match the day before, Serena did not drop a single point on serve in going 6-1 up.
Williams may have wished she could have spent a little longer on Centre Court, if only to delay a post-match press conference it which it would be hard to avoid talk around her public spat with Sharapova.

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The feud dominated the build-up to the Championships and stems from an interview the American did with Rolling Stone magazine.
Having felt Williams' negative comments about a fellow high-ranked player were about her, Sharapova returned fire by taking a swipe at the top seed's love life.
Williams, in turn, said she believed clear-the-air talks between the pair at a party in London on Thursday had seen Sharapova accept her apology.

Beaten: Minella had no answer to Williams, who was watched by coach and love interest Patrick Mouratoglou

Back on court, it was in the second game of the second set that Minella belatedly broke her duck against Williams' cannon shot. Williams hit back instantly with an ace but then surrendered the game with a double fault. Shock, horror. Minella led 2-0.
But Williams broke back, and the moment - if it ever really existed - was gone.
The rest was fairly predictable, even if Minella at least induced a sweat on the other side of the net.
The match started at 1.11 and as Minella hit the ball out for the last time the clock had clicked to 2.09.