Azarenka wins Wimbledon opener

Wimbledon, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Former world No. 1 star Victoria Azarenka posted a first-round victory on opening day at Wimbledon 2014.

The eighth-seeded Belarusian slugger handled Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 7-5 on No. 1 Court at the venerable All England Club.

The two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka just returned to tour action last week after being sidelined with a foot injury for three months. Monday marked her first match win since the fourth round at the Aussie Open in January.

Next up for Azarenka will be Serbian Bojana Jovanovski.

Meanwhile, oft-injured former U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer, who has been working with fellow Belgian and former world No. 1 star Kim Clijsters, dropped 17th-seeded former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-4 and Russian Maria Kirilenko doused 18th-seeded American Sloane Stephens 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).

Stosur struggles mightily on grass, having suffered six first-round exits in 12 trips to the All England Club and never advanced beyond the third round here.

Stephens saved five match points against Kirilenko before play went to a second-set tiebreak, where she had chances to extend the match with a 6-4 advantage, only to lose four straight points. Stephens had reached at least the fourth round at the last six Grand Slam events, including a run into the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year.

Stephens is still a solid 31-13 at the majors, but a pedestrian 55-54 everywhere else.

In other action involving seeds, No. 22 Russian Ekaterina Makarova overcame 43-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 and No. 32 Russian Elena Vesnina took care of Austria's Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 6-0, 6-4.