Venus in orbit; Safina plods on

LONDON – Defending champion Venus Williams and top seed Dinara Safina made the Wimbledon last 64 Tuesday while Andy Murray’s dream of becoming the first home men’s winner in 73 years also had a winning start.

Williams, the five-time champion, beat Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele, 6-3, 6-2 in a sun-kissed Center Court workout.

“It is the best place to be when you are a pro tennis player and I savor every blade of it,” said Williams who now faces Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko.

The American had her serve broken twice and had to spend an hour and 18 minutes on court against the 19-year-old, world 97.

Russian top seed Safina, who has never got beyond the third round, reached the last 64 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino and next plays Paraguay’s Rossana de los Rios.

Safina, the beaten finalist in Australia and at Roland Garros this year, shrugged off a knee injury on Court One.

“It’s a problem I’ve had for two months. I was struggling in the second set, but hopefully treatment will help,” said Safina who has yet to progress beyond the third round here.

Meanwhile, Murray reached the last 64 with a 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4 victory over American Robert Kendrick.

Murray, the third seed and who is bidding to become Britain’s first men’s champion since Fred Perry in 1936, now faces stylish Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

“It was a tough match – he served great for two and a half, three sets and he makes it hard for you,” Murray said.

“There were a lot of big points at important moments and it is good to have them early in the tournament.”

Murray was the only one of five British men to make the second round, a dire statistic illustrated by Alex Bogdanovic’s straight sets loss to Czech 20th seed Tomas Berdych.

That defeat was Bogdanovic’s eighth first round defeat in eight appearances, the worst record of any man at the All England Club.

Argentine fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, a semifinalist at Roland Garros, brushed aside France’s Arnaud Clement, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. He will next face 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, who defeated Robby Ginepri, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.

Two-time runner-up Andy Roddick was also a winner, seeing off France’s Jeremy Chardy, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-3.

There was to be no repeat of last year’s dream run to the semifinals for former world number one Marat Safin.

The Russian, who will retire at the end of the year, slumped to a dispiriting 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 defeat against American qualifier Jesse Levine.

Veteran players Kimiko Date Krumm and Jelena Dokic also saw their hopes of a fairytale melt in the Wimbledon heat.

Date Krumm, the 38-year-old Japanese who last played here in 1996, took the first set off Danish ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki but slipped to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 defeat.

Wimbledon at a glance

WIMBLEDON, England – A look at Wimbledon on Tuesday:

Weather: Sunny. High of 75 degrees F (24 C).

Attendance: 45,955, a new tournament single-day record.

Men’s Seeded Winners: No. 3 Andy Murray, No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 6 Andy Roddick, No. 8 Gilles Simon, No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez, No. 12 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 16 David Ferrer, No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka, No. 20 Tomas Berdych, No. 23 Radek Stepanek, No. 24 Tommy Haas, No. 26 Jurgen Melzer, No. 30 Viktor Troicki, No. 31 Victor Hanescu.

Men’s Seeded Losers: No. 14 Marat Safin, No. 25 Dmitry Tursunov, No. 33 Nicolas Kiefer.

Women’s Seeded Winners: No. 1 Dinara Safina, No. 3 Venus Williams, No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 6 Jelena Jankovic, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 11 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 13 Ana Ivanovic, No. 15 Flavia Pennetta, No. 17 Amelie Mauresmo, No. 18 Samantha Stosur, No. 19 Li Na, No. 20 Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Women’s Seeded Losers: No. 22 Alize Cornet, No. 25 Kaia Kanepi, No. 29 Sybille Bammer, No. 30 Agnes Szavay, No. 32 Anna Chakvetadze.

Stat of the Day: 0-2 - Jesse Levine’s tour-level record this season before he upset Safin.

Quote of the Day: “I come here every year expecting myself to win.” – Alex Bogdanovic of Britain, whose career record at Wimbledon fell to 0-8 with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Berdych. Only one man in tournament history ever fared worse: Joe Hackett of Ireland went 0-9.

On Court Wednesday: No. 2 Roger Federer vs. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, No. 4 Novak Djokovic vs. Simon Greul; No. 2 Serena Williams vs. Jarmila Groth, No. 24 Maria Sharapova vs. Gisela Dulko.

Wednesday’s Forecast: Sunny. High of 75 degrees F (24 C). AP