Zvonareva advances with 3-set win

LONDON, June 20 (UPI) -- Last year's Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva battled to a three-set win Monday in first-day play at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.

Zvonareva, who lost to Serena Williams in the 2010 women's final, started strong against Alison Riske in her first-round match this year before settling for a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win.

After dominating the first set, Zvonareva, seeded second this year, dropped the second after losing her serve. She lost serve again in the third set but also had a pair of breaks to advance.

Venus Williams, whose play this year has been limited by injury, showed little evidence of problems with a 6-3, 6-1 romp over Akgul Amanmuradova. Williams didn't face a break point and had just fived unforced errors.

Sixth-seeded Francesca Schiavone, like Zvonareva, was pushed to a third set before finishing off Jelena Dokic 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

That match was on Center Court and the players had to wait out a 55-minute delay because of rain. Several other matches were suspended because of weather.

Also, 12th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Zhang Shuai 3-6, 6-3, 6-4;

There were some low-level upsets, including Sara Errani sweeping 17th-seeded Kaia Kanepi 6-1, 6-4, Ksenia Pervak taking out 22nd-seeded Shahar Peer 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 and Christina McHale playing extra games for a 2-6, 6-1, 8-6 win over No. 28 Ekaterina Makarova.

Unseeded players headed to the second round included Kimiko Date-Krumm, Elena Vesnina, Anna Tatishvili, Pauline Parmentier, Monica Niculescu, Yanina Wickmayer, and Alexandra Dulgheru.