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Andy Murray’s Rola-coaster ride picks momentum

Andy Murray obliterated the second obstacle blocking his path to consecutive Wimbledon titles on Wednesday as he ended Blaz Rola’s All England Club adventure in brutal fashion.

The home favourite, who last year ended Britain’s 77-year hunt for a men’s singles champion, flattened the Slovenian 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 to reach the third round without dropping a set and stretch his winning streak at the All England Club to 15.

Veteran American Venus Williams, another player who thrives at the spiritual home of lawn tennis, if not in recent years because of illness and injury, battled into the third round with 7-6(4) 6-1 defeat of Japan’s Kurumi Nara.

Williams, level with younger sister Serena on five Wimbledon singles titles, missed last year’s tournament and exited in the first round in 2012 but the 30^th seed hopes she can at least join her sibling in the second week this time. “I guess I haven’t held up my end of the bargain,” the 34-year-old told reporters of her struggles. “I tried. I just haven’t had the luck I’ve wanted.”

Women’s seeds flourished in cool, sunny conditions early on Day Three with world No.2 Li Na untroubled by Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger and 2012 runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded four, opening action on Centre Court with an easy win against Australia’s Casey Dellacqua. Twelfth seed Ernests Gulbis’s hopes of making an impact following his semi-final run at Roland Garros ended in defeat to Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5).

The Latvian is the highest-ranked men’s casualty so far although defeat by the net-rushing Stakhovsky, the man who knocked out seven-times champion Roger Federer at the same stage last year, was not a complete surprise.

“Two of my biggest weapons, my serve and return, wasn’t there,” said the 25-year-old. Murray is unbeaten at Wimbledon since the 2012 final against Federer. A few weeks after that emotional defeat he returned to win an Olympic gold medal.