The opening day of 2021 Wimbledon saw only 20 matches played as several were cancelled and pushed back to Tuesday.

Among the seeded players to advance were second seed Aryna Sabalenka, fourth seed Sofia Kenin, seventh seed Iga Swiatek and 11th seed Garbine Muguruza.

Tenth seed Petra Kvitova fell to Sloane Stephens while 29th seed Veronika Kudermetova was also an upset victim.

Top seeds cruise through

Sabalenka, garnering her highest seed ever at a major, had no issues defeating Monica Niculescu 6-1, 6-4 in one hour, 15 minutes.

The Belarusian pounded 47 winners in winning her first match at the All-England Club since 2017.

"In the beginning, I was really nervous to open Wimbledon and also be first playing on [No. 1] Court", she said. "But, really happy that I won that match. I was enjoying it. People were supporting really well."

Kenin needed just over an hour to dismiss Xinyu Wang 6-4, 6-2 as the Chinese made her main draw debut at the All-England Club. 

The American broke in the fifth game of the first set and fought off a late charge by the world number 144 to take the opener before breezing through the second.

"I felt like overall I served well", she said following the victory. "It's my first match on grass this season. There is some little stuff I need to improve, but overall I'm quite happy with the way I played."

Swiatek battled past the tricky Su-wei Hsieh 6-4, 6-4, also in one hour, 15 minutes as the 2018 junior champion made 65 percent of her first serves while Hsieh committed six double faults.

Muguruza was at her ruthless best, dismantling Fiona Ferro 6-0, 6-1 in just 50 minutes. The 2017 champion is now 2-0 lifetime against the Frenchwoman.

The Spaniard converted on six of her nine break point opportunities and hit 10 winners while watching Ferro commit 22 unforced errors.

"Happy I felt good on the court", she said in her post-match press conference. "Since the first ball, I was trying to dominate the point and I felt I was doing it. I felt I was in control of the match."

Other seeded winners

18th seed Elena Rybakina had little trouble in beating Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-0, 23rd seed Madison Keys needed just 72 minutes to eliminate Katie Swan 6-3, 6-4 and 32nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova cruised past Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-3.

Stephens broke Kvitova three times while making 78 percent of her serves, improving to 3-1 against the Czech lefty.

"I was super aggressive on the returns", she said. "I was trying to make her play and be on the back foot. I knew I needed to play first-ball tennis and I did that pretty well today."

Kudermetova was edged out by Viktorija Golubic with the Swiss prevailing 1-6, 6-3, 11-9. The match between 26th seed Petra Martic and Varvara Gracheva was stopped with the Croat leading 3-0 in the third set.

British results

Katie Boulter provided the home country fans with a win as she outlasted Danielle Lao 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-4 but Jodie Burrage joined Swan on the sidelines as she was crushed by Lauren Davis 6-2, 6-1 and Heather Watson was also eliminated, edged out by Kristie Ahn 2-6, 7-6 (3), 8-6.

Other scores

Matches that were also completed included Svetlana Kuznetsova falling to Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove 6-3, 6-3, Vera Zvonareva getting past Marie Bouzkova 7-5, 6-4, Irina-Camelia Begu defeating Katie Volynets 6-4, 7-5 and Maria Camila Osorio Serrano rallying past Anna Kalinskaya 0-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Finally, Danielle Collins overcame Polona Hercog 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, Madison Brengle won an all-American affair against Christina McHale 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 and Claire Liu was victorious against Misaki Doi 2-6, 6-3, 9-7.