The China Mail - Sabalenka cruises on Wimbledon's hottest opening day as Alcaraz launches title bid

The BBC said temperatures at the All England Club had reached 31.4 degrees Celsius (88.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by 1500 GMT, surpassing the previous record for the start of the tournament of 29.3 Celsius set in 2001.

Top seed Sabalenka used ice packs to beat the heat during her 6-1, 7-5 victory over Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine on sweltering Court One.

The 27-year-old Belarusian is a three-time Grand Slam champion but suffered agonising three-set defeats in this year's Australian Open and French Open finals.

Sabalenka has never been beyond the Wimbledon semi-finals and missed last year's tournament with a shoulder injury.

"I felt really great. Super grateful to be healthy and ready to compete and to be through the first round," said the world number one, who next faces New Zealand's Lulu Sun or Czech player Marie Bouzkova.

"It was really good for me to have this little fight in the second set just to see where my level is at."

With players and fans searching for shade from the London heatwave, Alcaraz was in the spotlight as the Spaniard looked to maintain his red-hot form in the opening match on Centre Court against 38-year-old Italian Fabio Fognini.

Former England captain David Beckham watched the action from the royal box, alongside ex-England manager Gareth Southgate.

Having vanquished seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in the past two Wimbledon finals, Alcaraz is looking to join an elite group at the All England Club.

The French Open champion is bidding to become the fifth man in the Open Era to win at least three consecutive Wimbledon titles after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Djokovic.

- Mercury soars -

Two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur broke down in tears before retiring from her first-round match against Viktoriya Tomova.

Tunisia's Jabeur was trailing 7-6 (7/5), 2-0 when she brought a premature end to her clash with the Bulgarian world number 111.

The 30-year-old, beaten in the 2022 and 2023 Wimbledon finals, looked uncomfortable throughout the match.

The world number 59 wiped away tears after losing a long fifth game in the first set and took a lengthy medical timeout, with staff attending to her before taking her off court for 14 minutes.

"I wasn't expecting not to feel good. I have been practising pretty well the last few days," said Jabeur, who did not specify the reason for her withdrawal.

"I'm pretty sad. It really doesn't really help with my confidence and what I keep pushing myself to do."

Tennis devotees armed themselves with hats, sun cream and mini-fans as the mercury soared, while officials said they were "strongly" advising people without tickets not to travel to the grounds and join the queue.

Wimbledon has a heat rule to safeguard the health of the players.

The rule allows a 10-minute break to be taken between the second and third sets for women's matches and between the third and fourth sets for men's matches, when the heat stress index is at or above 30.1 degrees Celsius.

"The obvious point to make is that the athletes compete in temperatures like this all year on the tour so for us Brits here at the championships it feels very hot," said Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton.

"We do have the heat rule available to us which again is well used on the tour so we will be taking heat stress monitor readings."

Former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev suffered a meltdown in his shock first-round defeat against France's Benjamin Bonzi.

Medvedev had reached the Wimbledon semi-finals for the past two years, but the Russian's bid for another strong run at the All England Club came to an abrupt end at the hands of the world number 64.

Bonzi won 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in three hours and seven minutes, with the fuming Medvedev smashing his racquet against his chair at the end of the match.

Elsewhere, former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko was beaten 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 by Britain's Sonay Kartal.

S.Wilson--ThChM