The pressure was on. Vince Spadea, Sam Querrey, Robby Ginepri and Kevin Kim had all lost.
"This first day was just a bunch of tough draws for the guys,'' said Reynolds, who won the first two sets 6-2, 6-2 before Italy's Filippo Volandri retired with left knee pain. "I guess I'm happy that I won, but obviously, you'd like to see all the Americans do well everyday.''
Kim missed a chance to play five-time champion Roger Federer in the second round when he went down 7-5, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Robin Soderling.
Spadea was up a set and a break in the fourth before things started to go wrong and he lost 6-7 (8), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden.
"At 4-3, I'm two games away from winning. It's just not a good day for me,'' he said. "I didn't put it away. I don't usually let matches like that slip away, but I did today. On grass, you have to learn how to put it away and it should be easier, but for me it's harder.''
Spadea, who will be 34 next month, said he wanted to prolong his career, even if other people seemed to be saying it's almost time for retirement.
"This sport has a little bit of a scarlet letter when it comes to age. People start putting it on you and you become a little paranoid and conscious of it.
"Tennis is a demanding sport so it's not easy to play into your 30s and 40s, but other athletes overcome the age barrier. I've seen football players, basketball players, baseball players come into their 30s and 40s and do great things.''
Querrey won the opening set against former No. 1-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero, but went downhill after that and was broken once in each set.
"He's a good player, used to be No. 1 in the world and has won a Grand Slam, so it wasn't too bad,'' he said. "I had some break points that I didn't convert. I'm disappointed, but the guy is (No.) 20 in the world.''
Ginepri lost 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5 to 2007 Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.
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HEWITT THROUGH: Lleyton Hewitt was one set from leaving Roger Federer as the only Wimbledon champion in the men's draw on the first day of matches at the All England Club.
Hewitt, who has been sidelined with chronic hip pain in recent seasons, needed to draw on all his survival skills to fend off 21-year-old Dutch player Robin Haase 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2 in 3 hours, 35 minutes on Court 1.
The 27-year-old Australian was the last man to win Wimbledon before Federer's five-year streak started in 2003.
At least he made it to the second round. David Nalbandian, who lost the 2002 final to Hewitt, went out in straight sets to Canada's Frank Dancevic.
Hewitt was cautioned by chair umpire Fergus Murphy for unsportsmanlike conduct after complaining that a line judge was singling him out for foot-faults. He'd earlier smashed his racket to the ground after saving two break points in the first set.
Hewitt said he will dispute the charge.
"I'm not sure how many got called in the end,'' Hewitt said of the foot-faults that bothered him. "For some reason there's only one person that kept calling.
"We played two-and-a-half sets without that one person when they changed people, and then the same bloke came back again and I got done again.''
Haase kept the 20th-seeded Hewitt moving from side-to-side with some powerful ground strokes and had him on the back foot with 28 aces.
Hewitt said he became confident when the match went into a fifth set, an advantage set at the Grand Slam tournaments. And he brought back some uppercut fist pumps and 'C'mon' screams that were his trademark when he topped the rankings in 2001.
He said would ice the hip and expected it to be OK for his second-round match against Albert Montanes of Spain. He could meet Federer in the fourth round.
"I put up with it. This is Wimbledon, one of my favorite tournaments of the year,'' Hewitt said. "If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be playing.''
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STAY HOME: British police have warned 11 potential stalkers or troublemakers to stay away from Wimbledon during the two-week tournament.
Police at the All England Club didn't say which players were at risk from the "fixated individuals.''
"There are a number of individuals well known to the police, the All England Club and the tennis authorities,'' police superintendent Pete Dobson said Monday. "They have been written to and banned from entering the club.''
A member of one player's family has been issued with a restraining order barring him from Wimbledon during the next two weeks. The police did not identify the family.
A man believed to have been stalking 2004 champion Maria Sharapova was banned from the tournament in 2005.
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ODDS & ENDS: - British bookmakers are slashing the odds on a rain-free Wimbledon, saying there's two weeks of "fantastic'' weather on the cards.
William Hill cut its odds from 8-to-1 to 3-to-1 after seeing the forecast.
Only five tournaments have been rain free: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993 and 1995.
The last time play had to be scheduled on the middle Sunday - the traditional rest day - was in 2004, though it was only narrowly avoided last year.
Bad weather has forced the tournament into a third week 17 times, but not since 2001.
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PRICE HIKES: The credit crunch is hitting fans wanting to sample the traditional fare at Wimbledon, with the price rising for the first time in five years for strawberries and cream.
A basket of strawberries served with fresh cream is selling for $4.50, up 50 cents on last year's price. The previous rise was 10 cents in 2003.
The tournament says for freshness, the grade one English strawberries are picked in nearby Kent shortly before dawn the day before they're sold at the All England Club.
The healthy option is still relatively cheap. A small serving of ice cream was selling for $6 and a medium was going for $9. A luxury cushion, on sale in between the Centre Court and Court 1, will set spectators back $30.
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