Venus Williams began the defence of her Wimbledon title with a 6-3 6-2 win over world number 97 Stefanie Voegele.

The match was not as straightforward as the result suggests though, with the third seed given a real workout on Centre Court.

Williams found herself facing two break points in the first game of the opening set but eventually held serve and, despite some further minor scares, powered through to round two.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Jelena Jankovic produced a storming second-set comeback to finally triumph over the battling German Julia Goerges in the first round.

The sixth-seeded Serbian, who finished last year as women's world number one, won 6-4 7-6 (7/0) but at one stage seemed sure to be heading for a deciding set.

Having clawed back for a tie-break though, Jankovic took a clean sweep of the points to close out in emphatic style.

Katie O'Brien missed a glorious chance to reach the second round of Wimbledon for the second time when she lost a marathon match to Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.

The 23-year-old from Yorkshire, playing her third grand slam event of the year, led 3-1 in the deciding set but lost her temper and the match as the world number 35 prevailed 6-2 5-7 6-4 in a match that lasted six minutes over two hours in the blazing sun.

Meanwhile, teenager Dan Evans, one of four British wild-card entries in the men's singles, produced a spirited display on his SW19 debut but still lost in straight sets to Nikolay Davydenko, the 12th-seeded Russian.