Dmitry Tursunov serves to Marat Safin at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Tursunov won 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6. (Reuters)

London: Champion Serena Williams clambered clumsily over her first hurdle, Tim Henman survived an early scare but moody Russian Marat Safin plumbed new Wimbledon depths on Tuesday before vowing to give up on the Grand Slam.

The former world number one admitted throwing in the towel during his 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-7 (1-7) loss to fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov, a display which caused former Russian president Boris Yeltsin to stalk away from Court 2 after the second set.

“I give up on Wimbledon,” the 19th seed said. “(It) is definitely not the tournament for me. I give up on spending time on these courts... I hate. I hate this. I have to admit it. It’s like a nightmare for me. So after a while, I just get bored. I lost completely motivation, and I give up.”

“I try to be serious ... I came here one week before, and I was practising quite a lot. I spend a lot of time on the courts. I didn’t go out last night, and I didn’t have fun. I was trying to prepare myself and try to give myself another chance. But I think it’s the last one.”

While Safin moodily departed the All England Club, women’s champion Serena bristled at suggestions she had not been at her best during her 6-3, 6-1 win over Zheng Jie.

The American’s last match on grass was in the final here last year when she beat elder sister Venus. She missed the rest of that season with a knee injury and returned from an eight-month lay-off in Miami in March.

Henman admitted to frustration during his 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Wimbledon debutant Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo, but unlike Safin the Briton refused to give up.

“I definitely got a little bit frustrated at times on the court,” he said. “There were some positives aspects and there were a few aspects that I was struggling with.

“But I think upon reflection, having got off the court and obviously won and got through a difficult match, I didn’t play my best today.

Mark Philippoussis will have been mightily relieved to be back at Wimbledon. The Australian, runner-up here last year, notched his first tournament match win since January when he beat Belgian qualifier Christophe Rochus 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Philippoussis had gone seven tournaments without a victory coming into the grasscourt Grand Slam, including an embarrassing first-round defeat at Queen’s Club by British world number 866 Ian Flanagan.

Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva suffered a shock first-round exit, falling 4-6, 6-1, 4-6 to Sandra Kleinova of the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Wayne Ferreira broke the record for playing consecutive Grand Slams when he started his 55th straight major tournament at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old South African set the new mark when he took to Court 4 for his first-round match against Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, a relative beginner in his 20th Grand Slam. Ferreira won 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 6-2.

Ferreira, who previously shared the record of 54 with now-retired Swede Stefan Edberg, has played at every Grand Slam since he made his Australian Open debut in 1991.