| GEO Sports | | Federer, Sharapova into second round of Wimbledon tennis | Updated at: 1220 PST, Tuesday, June 23, 2009
 LONDON: Roger Federer got his bid for a sixth Wimbledon title off to a solid start with a straight-sets first-round win over Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei.
The Swiss star opened proceedings on Centre Court in the absence of injured defending champion Rafael Nadal.
And despite dropping serve early on, the world number two came through 7-5 6-3 6-2 in one hour 44 minutes.
Fourth seed Novak Djokovic had a much tougher time against Julien Bennteau, winning 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 6-4.
Federer, who is trying to win a record 15th Grand Slam title, will play Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two.
Former champion Maria Sharapova, who has already written off her chances of a Wimbledon repeat as she feels her way back from a shoulder injury, moved into the second round.
The Russian, seeded 24, battled to a 7-5, 6-4 win over Ukrainian qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova and will now face fellow tour glamour girl, Argentina's Gisela Dulko for a place in the last 32.
Sharapova, who made the quarterfinals of the French Open and the semi-finals of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Birmingham, insisted her right shoulder was fine.
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