Carlos Alcaraz made a stumbling start to his Wimbledon title defence on Monday before coming through in straight sets against Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal.
The Spanish third seed was taken to a tie-break in the opening set and trailed 2-0 against his unheralded opponent in the second but held his nerve to win 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 6-2. Alcaraz, still only 21, is chasing his fourth Grand Slam title and hopes to become just the sixth man after Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back.
He came into the match short of practice on grass after making an early exit from Queen's. He raced into a 5-1 lead and although he was briefly held up he served out to win in two hours and 22 minutes.
The third seed will face Australia's Aleksandar Vukic or Austria's Sebastian Ofner in the second round.