French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne began her Wimbledon title bid with an impressive 7-5 6-1 win over Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko in the first round on Tuesday.

Third seed Henin-Hardenne stepped on a sun-baked court one with her left hand and fingers heavily strapped, following her fall in the Ordina Open final three days ago, but she did not appear to be hindered by the injury.

Despite being ranked 97 places below the Belgian world number three, Vakulenko kept pace with Henin-Hardenne until the 11th game of a high-quality contest.

The 19-year-old's resolve finally crumbled when, looking to stay in the set, she hit three backhand errors in a row to hand Henin-Hardenne two set points.

The Belgian needed only one and let out a huge sigh of relief when Vakulenko's forehand sailed long after 48 minutes to end the first-set tussle.

Henin-Hardenne stepped up a gear in the second and steamrollered the Ukrainian with her devastating all-court game to wrap up the win a minute past the hour mark when Vakulenko miscued a forehand long. 

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