Enlarge imageBy Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) - The now familiar tide of Murray-mania started sweeping across Wimbledon on Tuesday as Andy Murray prepared to begin his bid to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's singles champion.
With the sun beating down on southwest London, record crowds were expected to file into the All England Club for the second day running as the countdown began for Murray to make his much-anticipated appearance on Centre Court.
One man hoping to gatecrash the British party is American Robert Kendrick, Murray's opening round opponent.
"I would love to disappoint a nation," he told British media in the build-up to the match. "But then I would probably have to leave the country the next day.
Third seed Murray can expect a bumper crowd to turn up after 42,811 spectators came through the gates on the opening day.
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That was up 354 on the previous single-day record set during the 2002 championships.
But before the main Murray show, they were plenty of supporting acts around to entertain the fans on day two.
Venus Williams performed her duties as champion with the minimum of fuss to stride into the second round with a 6-3 6-2 win over Switzerland's Stefanie Voegele.
LONG LIMBS
The American, described by nine times former champion Martina Navratilova as having "the wingspan of a 747" used her long limbs to great effect to easily fly past Wimbledon debutant Voegele.
Sixth seeded Jelena Jankovic clawed her way back from 5-2 down in the second set to beat Germany's Julia Goerges 6-4 7-6.
While the bubbly Serbian skipped off court, her namesake Jelena Dokic buried her head in a towel after her return to Wimbledon ended in a 3-6 7-5 6-2 defeat by Tatjana Malek of Germany.
Almost four weeks after Dokic had left the court in floods of tears, after retiring injured at Roland Garros, the Australian suffered more disappointment at the tournament she took by storm in 2000 when she reached the semi-finals.
Another sentimental favourite, Kimiko Date-Krumm, making her return to Wimbledon after a 13-year absence, also perished in her opening match.
The Japanese, ranked as high as number four in her heyday, will have to continue her search to win a match on the main tour this year after she was beaten 5-7 6-3 6-1 by Danish ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Spaniard Oscar Hernandez looked resigned to being on the receiving end of a whitewash but found the energy to spare his blushes when he lost 6-0 6-0 6-3 to Argentine Leonardo Mayer.
(Editing by Ken Ferris)
