A packed Centre Court, many of whose customers had been in their seats since shortly after Wimbledon’s gates were opened at 8.45 am, saw Roberta Vinci, the sixth-seeded Italian, overpowered 6-3, 6-4 by Coco Vandeweghe of the United States. Meanwhile, on No.2 Court, Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky, the No.11 seed, was defeated even more heavily by another hard hitter, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who won comfortably 6-3, 6-2.

Vinci, nine years older, at 33, and nine inches shorter (at 5ft 4in) than her opponent, has enjoyed most of her success as a doubles expert down the years but even her skills around the net were not enough to keep at bay the strength of Vandeweghe.

The spectators may have wondered at first who they were watching but, being predominantly British, they sided with the “little ‘un” against the 6ft 1in American.

Vandeweghe was a quarter-finalist here last year, which remains her best showing in 23 Grand Slams and she entered Wimbledon on the back of impressive grass court work, having won the title (for a second time) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and reached the semi-finals in Birmingham. All this showed as she went about her work confidently. One break of serve was enough to wrap up the first set, in which she conceded only five points on her own serve.

Afterwards Vinci paid this tribute: “Coco is a great player, especially on this surface. She is so strong on the serve. She was hitting 114, 115 [miles an hour]. Also her second serve had a good kick. I had difficulties returning.”