Shortly after 5.10pm on No 3 Court here on Monday, Jodie Burrage whacked herself hard on the foot with her racket and then walloped the other foot for good measure. On break point against her, Burrage had stopped mid-rally and called for a review, convinced that Caty McNally’s forehand had drifted long. Wrongly convinced, as it turned out, in what felt like a possible turning point in a match that Burrage, a wildcard, had been dominating.
That it proved to be anything but is a testament to Burrage’s tenacity and composure, as the world No 108, who had not made it past the first round here in two previous attempts, reeled off the next four games to complete a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of a player ranked 41 places in front of her.
It was not entirely wobble-free in the closing stages, as she was hauled back from 40-0 to deuce in the final game, but Burrage finally closed it out at the fifth attempt, reading and reaching a drop shot before flashing a cross-court winner.
“There was a lot of relief [at the end],” Burrage said. “Obviously it took me a few match points to get over the line. But I’m very happy with how I played and how I handled myself on court. I really enjoyed every moment of it.
“I wasn’t happy with myself at all with that call [for a review] but sometimes stuff like that just happens. Unfortunately, it was a break point, but I think that actually it fired me up a little bit, I was obviously annoyed with myself but I used it in a positive way.
“That’s about the work I’ve been putting in. In the last few years, I probably would have got annoyed with that and it might not have gone so well but the fact that I won the next four games shows how far I’ve come.”
Burrage will now carry her positivity into a match against the No 11 seed, Daria Kasatkina, who needed just an hour and a quarter to beat Caroline Dolehide 6-1, 6-4.
“I haven’t thought about it much but obviously she’s a great player,” she said. “She made the final last week in Eastbourne. It’s going to be a tough match but I’ll go out there and give it my all like I always do and see what happens.”
Burrage was the second British player to advance on the opening day, after Liam Broady eased past Constant Lestienne in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 7-5. Broady breezed through the first set, returning after a rain delay at 4-1 and a break point to the good and swiftly closing it out 6-1. His French opponent, making his Wimbledon debut at the age of 31, put up a little more resistance in the next two sets, breaking the Broady serve three times in all, but giving up his own no fewer than six.
Jan Choinski, who was making his grand slam debut, was a third British winner on the day, coming back to win in four sets against Dusan Lajovic after dropping the first against an opponent ranked 108 places ahead of him, but there were two defeats elsewhere, as Katie Swan and Harriet Dart both succumbed to higher-ranked opponents.
Swan traded blows with Belinda Bencic, the No 14 seed, throughout the first set, sending down nine aces and a dozen winners before giving way only in a hard-fought 12th game. The second was more straightforward for her Swiss opponent, however, as Bencic broke twice to close it out as a 7-5, 6-2 winner.
Earlier in the day, Dart found a way back into her match with Diane Parry more than once when the tide had seemed firmly set against her, and briefly held a narrow edge with a break in the decider having surrendered the second set to love.
Despite being broken twice from there amid a constant struggle against her opponent’s powerful groundstrokes, Dart again recovered to level with an ace at 4-4. A glimmer of an opening was all Parry required two games later, however, as the British No 4 ballooned a backhand wide on the first match point.
“Disappointing result,” Dart said. “I thought she started to up her level a bit in the second set, made it difficult for me, but I still felt like my level was pretty poor today. What’s amazing was I had a chance to win playing not great tennis [and] I still feel like I have so much to improve on. I’ve had a really good grass court season. It’s just disappointing that my worst match of the grass-court season came here. Naturally, being British, you want to play well here.”
Dan Evans, meanwhile, faces a struggle to justify his status as the 27th seed, after dropping the first two sets against Quentin Halys, 6-2, 6-3. Evans dropped his second service game and never threatened to claw it back before being broken again in the eighth. Evans dug in at 3-5 in the second and took Halys to seven deuces as he attempted to serve it out, his French opponent found a forehand winner to clinch a two-set lead overnight.
