ESPN Wimbledon 2007

WIMBLEDON, England -- Former Wimbledon champion Martina Hingis overcame a big scare Monday, saving two match points in the second set against 18-year-old British wild card Naomi Cavaday before taking nine straight games to win 6-7 (1), 7-5, 6-0.

Top-seeded Justine Henin beat Argentine qualifier Jorgelina Cravero 6-3, 6-0 to start her chase for a first Wimbledon title to complete a career Grand Slam. Two-time champion Serena Williams, down 5-4 in the first set, won nine straight games to defeat Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 7-5, 6-0.

Williams, who was far from her best in the first set, said she has been bothered by a tight hamstring.

"It's doing OK. It's getting better, slowly but surely," she said. "I'm hoping and praying it will get better in time."

"It's good she got through the match, but she looks like she's playing a little hurt. I don't think she should be playing. I told her she shouldn't," her father and coach, Richard, said after watching the match.

Williams didn't think the leg problem affected her serve, even though she finished with six double-faults, a total she figured is "more than I hit in a tournament, normally."

There were other problems, including 20 unforced errors, four more than her opponent.

At 4-4 in the first set, Williams sailed a backhand long, then a forehand long, getting broken. That allowed the 57th-ranked Lino to serve for the set. But she missed a backhand into the net, then another long, and Williams hit a swinging volley to break back and make it 5-5.

Hingis looked as though she might become the latest casualty on Court 2, known as the "Graveyard of Champions" for its history of upsets of former Wimbledon winners.

"You couldn't get any closer than being two match points down," she said.

Hingis hadn't played a match since losing in the German Open a month and a half ago because of hip and back injuries, and she looked rusty against a 232nd-ranked teenager playing in only her second Grand Slam match.

Hingis fell behind 3-0 after just seven minutes but came back to lead 5-4. Cavaday saved three set points in the next game and swept through the tiebreaker, losing just one point.

Cavaday was up 5-4 in the second set, and had two match points on Hingis' serve. She hit a forehand return into the net on the first, and Hingis wrong-footed her with a forehand winner on the second. Hingis held and never looked back, winning the rest of the games and closing out the third set in 20 minutes.

"I was just like, no, this is not going to happen to me, not here again at Wimbledon," Hingis said. "I never lost on Court 2. I know it's a graveyard of champions, but it's never been to me."

The tournament is expected to be badly disrupted -- showers are forecast for much of the first week.

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo will start her tournament against Jamea Jackson of the United States. The fourth-seeded Frenchwoman won two Grand Slam titles last year, but she missed nearly two months of action after having an appendectomy in March.

"We are probably, I don't know, four or five [who are] able to get the trophy this year," said Mauresmo, who lost in the third round at the French Open. "Yeah, I do consider myself part of these four or five."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press