Anna Kournikova finally took her fourth match point against Sandrine Testud for a baby step towards rehabilitating her tennis image. The giant posters which adorn the London Underground bearing her picture and the sports-bra logo "Only the balls should bounce" will have done little to slow the stream of knives which have been piercing her back for some time now.

But yesterday's uneasy rain-interrupted victory over two hours 20 minutes will have temporarily steadied her confidence as the teenager continues to play out her life under the microscope.

But the tournament is satisfied and in reality Kournikova's win constitutes an upset on day one of the championships.

The French woman was ranked 10th in the Wimbledon committee's seeding with the Russian unseeded, meaning that if she is to make any headway towards winning her first title, she will have to do it the hard way.

There are no easy runs for those not called by the seeding committee.

Kournikova took the first set 75 before Testud came back to draw level, also with a 7-5 second set. Occasionally caught in two minds whether to come to the net or not, Kournikova obviously made hard work of the match before Testud, looking equally unsteady, put a final forehand into the net to lose the set 4-6.

Kournikova may not be impressed with the manner of the win but she will surely welcome it. "It was very emotional. It was a tough first round but I think I was very focused and I'm satisfied," she said.

"She's the kind of player who plays well when she's behind. I got a little bit up-tight but she played well and I think I fought very well today. I was comfortable on Centre Court and was confident that I could play well against her."

Martina Hingis adopts such a thoughtless breezy persona these days that you have to think it's phoney.

The courts are "very good", the place is "very nice" for the number one seed and "it doesn't matter anymore where I am or what surface I'm playing on". For Hingis, the first round match against Angeles Montolio was a limbering up exercise. Unlike Kournikova's game against Testud, there was little sense of a potential upset and so it played out.

Although Hingis took some time to finish off Montolio, the 61, 6-2 result at least keeps her here. Last year's first round departure for the former champion is now buried.

Hingis, who was involved in a stalking incident in the US last year in which a man was arrested, refused to be drawn into a debate on her personal safety.

"I've been walking around town. When I'm practising or playing or when I'm on the grounds," she said. "I feel very safe." Serena Williams, undiplomatically described by her father Richard as the most likely of his two daughters to win Grand Slam events, did indeed win the US Open.

But despite her 6-3, 6-2 win over Asa Carlsson questions must remain over her match fitness.

Out of competition since April of this year, Serena is currently undergoing treatment which involves massage and "a type of medicine which is put into your knee through ions". Her sister Venus, who limply departed the French Open to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, will be one of her main dangers and vice versa.

"We're both feeling pretty good," said Venus. "There is a world of a difference between me now and me at the French. I had no control over my shots at the French.

"I couldn't and wouldn't serve in the French. But here I can."

Another player into round two is Anna Smashnova from Israel. She, some may remember, defeated Ireland's Karen Nugent in a junior quarter-final here some years ago in a match the Irish girl should have won.

Nugent's illness has prevented her from moving forward at the same rate but round two in the most important Grand Slam in the world constitutes positive progress.

One just wonders if Nugent remained fully fit would there now be an Irish player in the Wimbledon draw.