Sinner, Krejcikova reach Wimbledon 2nd round as Musetti, Pegula exit early
Returning to the Grand Slam stage for the first time since his epic French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz, the three- times major winner had a much less testing workout against world number 95 Nardi.
His compatriot had spoken in the past about learning from Sinner but this was a lesson in the differences between the best and the rest.
Sinner was bigger, stronger, faster, hit the ball harder and served better, and although Nardi did his best to hang on to his coat tails in the first two sets, his compatriot was simply too good.
Elsewhere, last year's semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti was dumped out in the first round by inspired Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Seventh seed Musetti, playing his first match since retiring in the French Open semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz with a leg injury, never looked settled against the world number 126 and went down 6-2 4-6 7-5 6-1 on a muggy Court Two.
Defending women's champion Barbora Krejcikova survived a stiff examination from promising 20-year-old Filipina Alexandra Eala before finding her groove to triumph 3-6 6-2 6-1 on her return to Wimbledon's Centre Court.
Czech Krejcikova, a shock winner as 31st seed last year and seeded 17th this time, came into the tournament short on form after a succession of injuries and initially had no answer to the confident, free-swinging Eala, who is the first woman from the Philippines to play at Wimbledon.
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen became the second big casualty at Wimbledon on Tuesday as the Chinese fifth seed was beaten 7-5 4-6 6-1 in the first round by Czech Katerina Siniakova.
Zheng powered her way to gold in Paris last year and was tipped for a strong run at the All England Club but doubles specialist Siniakova had too much grasscourt craft.
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