Wimbledon: Wawrinka avoids another first-round exit

London: Stanislas Wawrinka bludgeoned his way into the second round of Wimbledon for the first time in three years with a comfortable 6-3 6-4 6-3 victory over Portugal`s Joao Sousa on Tuesday.

The Australian Open champion has struggled at the All England Club during his career, losing his opening match five times in nine visits, but he never looked in danger of another early exit on a sun-baked Court Two. The fiery fifth seed, who reached the semi-finals of the Queen`s Club warm-up tournament earlier this month, delighted the crowd with some sizzling forehands and backhands which proved to hot for claycourt specialist Sousa to handle. Wawrinka looked a little frustrated with himself on occasions but never gave Sousa the slightest glimpse of a break point as he cruised to victory. He fired 18 aces, several on second serves, as he moved through to face either Taiwan`s Yen-Hsun Lu or Kazakhstan`s Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the next round.