LAURA ROBSON was so nervous on Court No.1 yesterday that she could not stop throwing up.

As the 19-year-old was closing in on her break-out win in the main draw at Wimbledon against No.10 seed Maria Kirilenko, her palpitations manifested themselves with persistent trouble with her ball toss. Thankfully, before the crowd could fully work themselves into apoplexy on her behalf, the world No.38 managed to master her emotions again. When one last lefty forehand landed on the line, she had her victory by a 6-3, 6-4 margin.

For all those fine Grand Slam wins against Kim Clijsters and Li Na at Flushing Meadows and Petra Kvitova in Australia, this was the first authentic chance Wimbledon has had to witness that same fist pump, wave and disbelieving look at the moment of victory since Robson took the girls' title five years ago.

"If you've seen me play before, that's nothing new, unfortunately," Robson said of her throwing malfunction. "It's something that I'm working on. Throwing the ball up, catching it, trying to find the right ball toss has been happening for a long time. Then nerves start to creep in a little bit and you just lose the timing a tad.

"I'm in the process of changing my serve a little bit. But I just had to kind of refocus on doing the right things and keep trying to hit the big shots."

While her brother Nicholas, an All England Club court coverer, watched, the Melbourne-born player's mother, Kathy, stayed at her new home in Greece, but she had been in touch. "I haven't spoken to her on the phone but I've texted her and everything," Robson said. "She always texts me back during the matches. So when I get off the court, I've got like eight messages to read, generally about catching the ball toss."

Robson goes on to meet Mariana Duque-Marino, the exotically-named world No.117 of Colombia, with at least a plausible path to a meeting against Germany's No.7 seed Angelique Kerber in the following round. The world No.38 was also confident enough to gently chide Virginia Wade, the last female winner here back in 1977, over her comments that she could go on to achieve something "incredible" in this year's tournament. "Virginia always gets quite excited, doesn't she?" Robson said. "I go out against the top players with nothing to lose, and I've always been like that. In the past I've started out well then not been able to hold on. But I've been really happy with my progress with the last couple months."

Part of the credit for that must go to Miles Maclagan, Andy Murray's former coach, with whom she is working on a trial basis, although Robson said he had made only "very minor changes" and no decision had been made on a long-term basis.

Perhaps Robson's anxiety in her service motion was exacerbated by the sudden reliance of British tennis to have her in the second round. Earlier in the day, she had watched her friend Heather Watson – as she continues her recuperation from glandular fever – go down to highly-rated US player Madison Keys, while before the day was out Tara Moore's brave fight back came up short against Estonia's Kaia Kanepi. Those setbacks added to the exits of four British women yesterday, with only Andy Murray left standing amongst the men.

Although she was a break to the good in the second set, before her eventual 6-3, 7-5 loss, it was unfair to judge the efforts of Watson harshly, since she clearly is not back to her best after illness, and was matched against a young player in Keys who is going places. "I feel like my game isn't back yet," she said. "I don't think I served well. My reactions are slow. I'm not moving like I usually move, getting balls back."

Moore scrapped away to the last during a 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 heartbreaker against Kanepi, offering far greater resistance than that encountered by some of the big guns of the women's draw. Serena Williams coasted into the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 win against Mandy Minella, securing the first set in just 19 minutes before a double fault briefly delayed her victory in the second.

It was a minor blip but the 31-year-old still came off court complaining of feeling somewhat offer her game, drawing parallels with the loss of form which caused Rafael Nadal to tumble out of the competition in the first round of Monday. The Spaniard lost in straight sets to world No.135 Steve Darcis.

"I played a lot of matches on clay this year, more than I've played ever before," said Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion and winner of 16 major singles titles. "I had a little tough time adjusting. So for him [Nadal] it must have been a lot more difficult because he only played clay courts. I feel like I was a little rusty for some reason."

"Tennis is not only power, not only speed, not only for young players," said Date-Krumm, who seemed to illustrate her seniority by carrying a teapot into her press conference afterwards. "This doesn't go on court, though. It's too hot."