Petra Kvitova had to come from behind to make a winning start to the defence of her Wimbledon title on Centre Court.
The 22-year-old Czech fell an early break down against Uzbekistan's world number 96 Akgul Amanmuradova and was in trouble at 4-2 adrift in the first set, but then pieced together six straight games and went on to earn a 6-4 6-4 victory.
The match was interrupted by the first showers of the fortnight during the second set but Kvitova was by that stage approaching the winning line.
The rain delay, lasting half an hour, forced the players to take shelter and the court covers to go on.
But Kvitova returned to play a love service game and clinch a second-round tussle against Britain's Elena Baltacha.
"I was nervous," Kvitova said. "It was the first time for me to play as the defending champion of a grand slam.
"It was huge honour to come to Centre Court and I wanted to make people happy but it's not that easy.
"But I'm happy that I stayed calm inside and did not panic during the important points."
Serena Williams succeeded where sister Venus failed by making a winning start on Court Two in the first round at Wimbledon.
The younger of the two sisters, who has four Wimbledon titles to Venus' five, claimed a straight-sets victory against Czech player Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
Monday saw Venus lose on the same court to Russian Elena Vesnina but Serena gave a more effective performance to win 6-2 6-4.
Serena complained about having to play on Court Two last summer but had no qualms with the decision today, saying: "I'm over it. I don't care to talk about it.
"It was a little bit of a relief to get through.
"I was happy with how I played."
Former finalist Vera Zvonareva survived a tough test in her Wimbledon opener to reach round two.
Up against rapidly-improving German Mona Barthel, Zvonareva was close to defeat when she moved into a second-set tie-break having dropped the first set.
However, she won that and claimed a tight decider to post a 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 victory.
The 12th seed, runner-up to Serena Williams in 2010, will next face Silvia Soler Espinosa.
Former semi-finalist Jie Zheng, who made the last four in 2008, was also a three-set winner, but there was an early seeded casualty with Kiki Bertens taking out the 19th seed Lucie Safarova with a convincing 6-3 6-0 win.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 31st, took just over an hour to swat aside Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-1 6-2 while Kristyna Pliskova beat Polona Hercog to set up a second-round tie against Francesca Schiavone, who beat Briton Laura Robson in three sets on Court Three.
Aleksandra Wozniak beat Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-2 7-5 and there were also wins for Romina Oprandi and Yaroslava Shvedova, who beat Irina-Carmelia Begu and Aleksandra Wozniak respectively.
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner also beat American Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-3 on Court 17.
