By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Federer's early bow at the 2009 Wimbledon championships confirmed the Swiss maestro as the dandiest dresser at the All England Club and he will be aiming to dazzle the fans and his opponent once again on Wednesday.
His gleaming white jacket, cut in the style of a military general, earned lots of coverage from the fashion writers who inhabit the two-week grasscourt grand slam and his gold-trimmed bag would have looked more at home in an LA boutique.
But Federer does not need props to attract attention and he will provide the main course on an appetizing day of second round matches when he takes on Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
With lots of sunshine and temperatures expected to be in the high 20s, it is all a far cry from the last occasion five times champion Federer met a Spaniard across the Center Court net.
That was 12 months ago when the sadly absent Rafael Nadal ambushed Federer in near darkness to rip the title from his hands and deprive him of a sixth consecutive triumph.
The 26-year-old Garcia-Lopez is no Nadal, however, and Federer should take another step toward what he hopes will be a record 15th grand slam title with relative ease.
On Court One twice women's champion Serena Williams was in action against Australia's Jarmila Groth after men's fourth seed Novak Djokovic opened the action against German Simon Greul.
Those arriving early on Court Three saw the end of Chinese 16th seed Zheng Jie, whose hopes of repeating last year's run when she became the first Chinese to contest a grand slam singles semi-final were dashed by Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 7-5.
Japan's 33-year-old Ai Sugiyama backed up her opening day victory over Patty Schnyder by reaching the third round with a 7-6 6-3 defeat of Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja. She next comes up against Hantuchova who is her doubles partner.
Tenth seed Nadia Petrova, one of the army of Russians that dominate the women's draw, cruised through with the loss of just five games against Israeli Shahar Peer.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Source: Reuters
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