Serena, Federer sail thru'

Eight-time champion Roger Federer and seven-time winner Serena Williams shrugged off 30-degree heat to breeze into the Wimbledon second round Monday.

Federer, the defending champion and seeking a 21st major, marked the start of his 20th successive Wimbledon with a new look and a comfortable 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 win over Serbia's Dusan Lajovic.

Williams, like Federer, 36-years-old but chasing a 24th Slam title, enjoyed a hard-fought 7-5, 6-3 victory over Holland's Arantxa Rus.

It was the American's first match at the All England Club since lifting the 2016 title. She missed the 2017 edition as she prepared for the birth of her first child.

Federer cruised past world number 57 Lajovic in just 79 minutes. After just 20 minutes to complete the first set, Federer went on to fire 35 winners past Lajovic, breaking serve five times, setting up a second round encounter against either Lukas Lacko of Slovakia or French qualifier Benjamin Bonzi.

Out on Court One, Serena, seeded 25 this year despite a ranking of 181, had too much power for Rus, the world 107 who made the third round in 2012 but failed to get out of qualifying on her last three visits.

Williams, looking to move within one title of Martina Navratilova's Open era record of nine Wimbledon titles, fired 23 winners past Rus and broke serve four times. She next faces either Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova or Czech wild card Tereza Smitkova.

US Open champion and fourth seed Sloane Stephens became the tournament's first big name casualty when she slumped to a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Croatia's world 55 Donna Vekic. A few hours later, sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov crashed out  1-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to three-time slam champion Stan Wawrinka, currently ranked 225 as he was out of the game because of knee surgery.

Third seed and 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic enjoyed a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka.

Cilic, who won the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's Club last month, fired 21 aces and 44 winners past his 259th-ranked opponent.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki built on her Eastbourne title at the weekend with a 59-minute, 6-0, 6-3 win over Varvara Lepchenko.

Venus Williams, a five-time champion and runner-up last year, made the next round with a 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-1 win against Johanna Larsson of Sweden.

Serena's fellow tennis-playing mother, Victoria Azarenka, a former world number one and two-time semi-finalist, defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.