Defending champion Elena Rybakina booked her place in the Wimbledon third round but only after surviving a torrid second set against experienced Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who needed a medical timeout after slipping late in Thursday's contest.
On paper the 6-2 7-6(2) win looked comfortable enough but it was far from straightforward as Rybakina’s power game which initially looked devastating began to malfunction badly.
From seeming as though she would be back in the locker room in little more than an hour, she was eventually relieved to get off after a second set that lasted 82 minutes. She will now face wildcard Katie Boulter, Britain’s last remaining player in the women’s draw.
“I started the match good. I had good energy but in the second set it became tougher,” Rybakina, who took Wimbledon by storm to win the title last year, said on court.
“It was a tricky long game and also Alize’s fall. It was a tough match but I’m happy to win in two sets.”
The Moscow-born Kazakh began like a whirlwind against her 33-year-old opponent, slamming winners all over Centre Court in a 26-minute opening set.
But her game went from red hot to decidedly lukewarm as the wily Cornet, playing in her 66th successive Grand Slam tournament, a women’s professional era record, used all of her experience to gain a foothold.
Cornet reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at this year’s Australian Open and stunned Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2014 as well as knocking out top seed Iga Swiatek at last year’s championships.
Extending the rallies, she gradually began to extract wild errors off the Rybakina racket.
The third seed was rocking at 5-5 when she slipped 0-40 down on serve, but clawed her way back.
A marathon 11th game, made even longer by Cornet’s medical timeout after she slipped awkwardly behind the baseline, contained five break points for Cornet and 10 game points for Rybakina before the Kazakh held with a backhand winner.
With the Centre Court gradually filling up in anticipation of local favourite Andy Murray’s blockbuster against fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, Cornet took the match into a tiebreak.
But an erratic Rybakina eventually managed to settle down and get the job done.
Earlier, Germany’s Alexander Zverev fired 20 aces past Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer to move into the Wimbledon second round with a hard-earned 6-4 7-6(4) 7-6(5) win.
The 19th seed did not have an easy tournament start against the world number 153, whose own first serve percentage matched that of Zverev, and with the German getting just two break opportunities in total in the first two sets.
He next plays another lower-ranked player in Japan’s world number 116 Yosuke Watanuki with little time to rest as the schedule has been reworked following all the rain delays.
“He was a very tough opponent and the rain was a very tough opponent,” said Zverev, whose match was one of the last first-round clashes to finish. “I’m just happy to be back at Wimbledon.”
He missed the tournament last year following his ankle injury at the French Open.
“I missed it last year with a bad injury so just to be on this court I’m happy to be here with 10,000 people. I know Wimbledon is the most historic tennis tournament in the world and maybe the most historic sporting event in the world.
“I play again tomorrow and the day after, well if I win of course. It’s going to be a tough few days with back-to-back matches and it is never easy physically – I’m just happy to be playing tennis now,” Zverev said.
The 26-year-old snatched a break at 3-3 in the first set before serving it out and both players held serve until left-hander Brouwer carved out two set points at 6-5.
Zverev, a former world number two, saved them both to force a tiebreak, winning it with another booming ace.
Both players comfortably held serve in the third to take it to another tiebreak and Zverev fired down his 20th ace to seal victory on his third match point.
World number four Casper Ruud crashed out in the second round of Wimbledon on Thursday at the hands of British wildcard Liam Broady.
Broady held his nerve when trailing two sets to one against the French Open finalist, rallying to win the Centre Court clash 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.