Nadal, Berdych grab early Wimbledon wins

LONDON, June 20 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych, last year's men's singles finalists, each won in straight sets Monday on the first day of action at the Wimbledon Championships.

Nadal, the world No. 1 who has won at Wimbledon two of the last three years, spotted Michael Russell an early break before running away with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory. Nadal had just 14 unforced errors against 35 winners.

Nadal dropped serve and fell behind 1-4 in the first set before taking over the match. He faced one other break point the rest of the way.

Berdych, seeded sixth, rolled by Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 behind 12 aces and without facing a break point. He had twice as many winners as unforced errors.

Rain caused issues, with play stopped across the Wimbledon complex except on Center Court after its roof was closed.

Fourth-seeded Andy Murray, who got his match in late Monday because of the roof, won the last 15 games of his match in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 win over Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Murray won three-quarters of the points in the final two sets.

Also in the first round, ninth-seeded Gael Monfils defeated Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 10th-seed Mardy Fish got past Marcel Granollers 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 and No. 14-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka was a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Potito Starace.

Rainier Schuettler advanced with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-2 upset of 30th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci.

Other seeded players headed to the second round are 17th-seeded Richard Gasquet, No. 31 Milos Raonic.

Non-seeded winners Monday included Feliciano Lopez, Ryan Sweeting, Grega Zemlja, Julien Benneteau, Dudi Sela, Igor Kunitsyn, Simone Bolelli, Denis Istomin, Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Gilles Muller.