Australia's Ash Barty progressed to the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday after beating Anna Blinkova 6-4, 6-3 in the first match of the day on Centre Court.
It was far from a comfortable afternoon out for No. 1 seed Barty, who struggled at times with her serve in particular.
Barty's playing time has been limited to an extent with the pandemic and a hip injury that forced her out of the French Open in the second round and also out of the quarterfinals in Rome. Wimbledon also marks her first grass tournament in over two years.
"This is a beautiful court. This is where it is at. I wish we could play all year on this," she said in her on-court interview.
"I love it. It felt like a long two years but I'm glad to be back.
"She [Blinkova] played a great match today. There were a few points here and there that could have made this a different story."
This was the first career meeting between the two and while Blinkova did play some decent shots in the first set, it was Barty's inability to get her serve under control which kept the Russian in the match.
Barty struggled with double faults in the match, including two in a row during her first serve in the first set which allowed Blinkova to break her straight away.
She made nine double faults throughout the match while Blinkova only conceded two.
These sorts of mistakes kept creeping into Barty's game, especially with her backhand. She made 33 unforced errors throughout the match compared to 21 by Blinkova.
However, Barty grew into the first set and shook off some of her nerves. The errors in her game continued though and despite breaking Blinkova at the first time of asking in the second set, she then allowed her 22-year-old opponent to break back.
Much like in the first set, however, Barty stayed calm and allowed her game to rise to the occasion. Blinkova couldn't match the Australian's return and Barty took the set comfortably at 6-3.
Nick Kyrgios beat Italy's Gianluca Mager in straight sets 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, 6-4 to progress to the third round of the championships. Kyrgios was in flying form as he bantered with the crowd and umpires, often crediting the fans with good calls on shots that he won.
Besides the support from the crowd, the 26-year-old's other big advantage was his serve to which Mager had no answers. He hit 29 aces throughout the match with a large number hitting 120 to 135 miles per hour.
Despite his impressive performance, Kyrgios once again took issue with the grass. Earlier in the week he had complained it was too short and on Thursday he said: "Make it real grass again." He also turned to the crowd and explained why the conditions weren't ideal.
"The first set was huge. Obviously I feel like guys these days, especially against me, I reckon he went out there with a game style knowing if I play my normal game style, I'm going to get crushed. So he played a game style where he didn't even let me get into rallies much.
He was serving big on first and second, trying to get the first strike in whenever he could. He was hitting massive off both sides. There wasn't really much I could do, to be honest. But, again, like, that's what these guys are going to do to beat me, I guess on grass."
Kyrgios and Barty were joined in the third round by fellow Australians Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth and Ajla Tomljanovic.