Slim Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, the star with the biggest promise of ending the women's power era at Wimbledon, fought through the pain of a hand injury to reach the second round against tall Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko. French champion Henin-Hardenne, who ended Serena Williams' Grand Slam dominance last month, had damaged her wrist and had to drop out of a final in Holland last Saturday against compatriot Kim Clijsters, the rival she conquered in the Roland Garros final. But after a fitness test yesterday she surged to an opening victory 7-5 6-1, although she admitted: "It is still painful and I have to go match by match." The injury is not on her serving hand but gives her a few problems when tossing the ball for her delivery and she said: "I've got to make sure I focus. To be honest, I'm just glad to be here playing. The second great issue was that I won. "She (Vakulenko) played well and her serve was difficult to attack in the first set but I gradually took over." Third seed Henin-Hardenne was cheered to the French crown in Paris, having left Williams suffering the jeers in the semi- final, and she said: "I know the crowd is different at Wimbledon but hopefully I'll get a lot of support behind me again." Serena Williams overcame the "Hewitt factor" to make a confident start to the defence of her Wimbledon crown. The world number one, shaken by the sensational first-round defeat of men's champion Lleyton Hewitt on Monday, was delighted to ease past fellow American Jill Craybas 6-3 6-3 in under an hour. She will now play veteran Belgian Els Callen, who took her to two tie-break sets in the third round last year. Jennifer Capriati, seeded eight, also came through impressively, ditching Myriam Casanova of Switzerland 6-1 6-3 in double-quick time and said she was capable of winning the title after her three Grand Slam titles in the last two years dried up this year. Former world number one Capriati insisted: "I haven't lost any of my motivation but nobody can keep up the kind of momentum before." Wimbledon 11th seed Jelena Dokic admitted she feared losing to British hope Elena Baltacha if she had repeated her typical form this season. Dokic, semi-finalist in 1999 who made shock early exits at Eastbourne and the French Open this year, scraped through her first round clash with the British number two who is suffering from a liver complaint. She won 6-3 1-6 6-4 in just over an hour and 40 minutes on a packed Court Three where the home crowd had high hopes of an upset. Ukraine-born Baltacha, 19, the world number 149 who has been dogged by illness, confirmed she will face a biopsy next week as specialists try to discover the source of her liver problem which has been a factor since November when she also had her tonsils removed. Other seeds were not as lucky as Dokic with Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn (32) going down in straight sets to Japan's Akiko Morigami, American Meghann Shaughnessy (19) crashed 6-3 6-2 to Hungarian qualifier Aniko Kapros who is ranked below 200. But Russians Anastasia Myskina, the 10th seed, and Elena Dementieva, 15, came through comfortably against, respectively, Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia, who retired injured in the second set, and Germany's Angelika Roesch. Maria Sharapova won the battle of the babes with a 6-2 6-1 triumph over fellow teenager Ashley Harkleroad. In the absence of Anna Kournikova, Court Two offered the chance to see two of the best-looking competitors in the women's singles, with Sharapova's long legs offering an interesting comparison with Harkleroad's almost-perfect, if slightly more physical frame. | 
