An elegant Spanish 22-year-old, a feisty Italian blonde, a Frenchman with a voice that mixes gravel with honey on a sultry mid-summer’s evening provided all the ingredients for the first major drama of this year’s Wimbledon as last year’s women’s finalist was made to battle her way into the second round.

Gabrine Muguruza found herself up against a firefly of an opponent in Camila Giorgi on centre court and with Kader Nouni’s calls from the chair adding an additional frisson – not without reason is he known as ‘the Barry White of tennis’ – it was high entertainment as, against the odds, the first women’s match on centre court lasted more than half an hour longer than the men’s opener had.

The tone was set from the outset as both players’ serves were broken at the first time of asking and while an immediate second break by Muguruza set her on her way to taking that set 6-2 the way Giorgi was going for her shots meant the sense that the new French Open champion who is second seed here after reaching last year’s final was under real threat and she clearly sensed it.

“It's not like in clay, (where) you’ve got more time… you can survive more,” Muguruza observed afterwards.

“Here, right away you are in danger if you don't go for it.”

All the more so if an opponent continues to do so as Giorgi was prepared to, glaring and hitting fiercely as she produced umpteen clean winners and hung in to turn around points that looked lost, her sprightliness and crispness of shot making at times making the supremely athletic woman on the other side of the net look almost clumsy by comparison and a time violation, picked up late in the set, also hinted at unease.

Muguruza was certainly frustrated as was indicated by the way she disdainfully tossed her racquet aside on returning to her chair after the serve she had just failed to return in the game that put her 6-5 behind which was to prove crucial when she was then broken and the match was levelled.

When she subsequently briefly let Giorgi off the hook as, having been 0-40 up on the Italian’s serve she gave Nouni the chance to announce his seductive ‘deuce’ for the umpteenth time, the match looked very much in the balance, but after two more deuces the double fist pump that greeted the break spoke of relief more than anything else.

Still Giorgi kept at it, asking serious questions of Muguruza through the succession of tight service matches she had to play out to hang on for a 6-2,5-7,6-4 win which, in the end, was probably the ideal start to the tournament for a player who had played on one match on grass, losing a first round tie in Mallorca, ahead of returning to Wimbledon.

Every indication was that this would prove to be a valuable experience in the longer run and she fully absorbed the reminder of what is required.

“I think just on grass you have less time, less time for everything,” Muguruza observed.

“You’ve really got to concentrate your first shots, which are going to make the difference.

“I think it's just faster. You’ve got be more concentrated.”

Rather more of the women’s contenders will be in action on the second day, with defending champion Serena Williams naturally having pride of place as she returns to centre stage, but big sister Venus also came through a challenging opening match, having to negotiate a tie-break in the opener before taking the second set against Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4.

“She hit more winners than I did,” Williams admitted afterwards.

“She seemed to track down every ball that I hit and produced a lot of winners. If she can build on that play that will be great for her for the rest of the year.”

Not, though, for the rest of this tournament as the five time champion marches on, as does Angelique Kerber, the German who stopped her sister in her tracks at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.

It took her just 69 minutes to see off Laura Robson, the English 22-year-old of whom so much was once hoped but whose career has been ravaged by injury problems since, teamed with Andy Murray, she reached the mixed doubles final at the London Olympics four years ago, to the extent that she was dependent on a wildcard for her involvement here.

Kerber’s fellow German Sabine Lisicki, famously a beaten a finalist three years ago but who has now slipped down the rankings sufficiently to be unseeded, meanwhile eased through her opener against American Shelby Rogers 6-1,6-3 to set up a meeting with Sam Stosur, the Australian 14th seed whom she beat on her way to that emotional encounter with Marion Bartolli.