Wimbledon latest: Wins for Brits Heather Watson, Ryan Peniston & Jack Draper but Paul Jubb falls short

The Australian eventually prevailed 3-6 6-1 7-5 6-7 (3) 7-5 in three hours and five minutes at a rowdy Court Three crowd.

In trademark Kyrgios fashion, the world number 40 was involved in a number of prickly chats with line judges and spectators, but a mixture of 30 aces and an array of glorious winners sent him into round two.

Jubb started impressively in his second main draw appearance at the All England Club and claimed a decisive break in the eighth game of the first set to clinch the opener in 23 minutes.

Kyrgios, who had already produced one under-arm serve, smashed a tennis ball out of the court to threaten a round one implosion but regained his cool and broke twice in the second before he edged a tight third.

By this point the 27-year-old had been involved in regular talks with a number of line judges and spectators.

At one stage, he turned to the umpire and was heard saying about some spectators: “I don’t go to their nine to five and start clapping when they’re scanning s*** at a supermarket do I? Go ‘boo, well done, you can’t scan that thing for s***’…You should remove them from the crowd.”

York-born Jubb did his best to not interact with his opponent and showed more than enough of his talent with numerous wristy forehand winners forcing a decider after a tie-break.

When Kyrgios broke in the sixth game of the fifth set, it appeared the Aussie would coast home but Jubb fought back when his rival had the chance to serve for the match and then held to get proceedings back on serve.

A 134mph ace helped Kyrgios to a big hold at 5-5 and he progressed with his second match point to break again, which brought an entertaining round one clash to an end.

Afterwards, Kyrgios said in his on-court interview: “He played some exceptional tennis at times and the crowd were pretty rowdy today. A couple of people in the crowd were not shy of criticising me, so that one was for you – you know who you are.

“I thought I was going to go down there and it would have been a tough, tough loss to take so I am just happy to be through.”

Despite Jubb's defeat, British tennis had a day to remember at Wimbledon on Tuesday as six more players reached the second round, making it the best performance in 25 years.

Heather Watson, Katie Boulter, Jack Draper, Ryan Peniston, Liam Broady and Alastair Gray joined Emma Raducanu, Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie in winning their opening matches.

Not since 1997 has Britain had nine representatives through to the second round of the singles, while Harriet Dart can make it 10 - a figure not seen since 1984 - in her delayed match against Rebeka Masarova on Wednesday.

Evans out early again but Broady and Boulter progress

British number two Dan Evans crashed out in the first round in a surprise straight sets loss to Australian Jason Kubler.

Evans, seeded 28th, does not have a happy record at Wimbledon and that continued with a 6-1 6-4 6-3 loss to the Australian but Broady beat Lukas Klein in five sets in three and a half hours.

"Some days you don’t have a good day. That’s why they roll the balls out. If it was done on rankings, there would be no tournament," said Evans.

“That’s what it is. It hurts, but you always want to do well here. I’ve done well here in the past. But the facts are I lost and he was too good. I’ll be moving on pretty swiftly. The beauty of this game is there’s another chance just around the corner."

World number 132 Broady, who made the junior final at the All England Club in 2011, recovered from being a break down in the decider to triumph 4-6 6-3 7-5 6-7 (2) 6-3.

It made the wild card the eighth Briton through to round two in the men and women’s singles and his reward is another meeting with 12th seed Diego Schwartzman who knocked out Broady in four sets last summer at the same stage.

Boulter became the sixth Briton to win on Tuesday and ninth to reach the second round as she beat Clara Burel 7-5 6-3. It was the third time she has made the second round at Wimbledon and one more win will be her best grand slam performance.

Watson in dreamland...

An emotional Watson was reduced to tears after reaching the second round of Wimbledon.

The British number four finished the job against Tamara Korpatsch on Court One, winning 6-7 (7) 7-5 6-2 in a match that was carried over from Monday night.

It was suspended at 10.40pm due to the local curfew tied at one set all and Watson came back in style on Tuesday with an impressive third-set performance, breaking her German opponent twice.

The win allowed her to exorcise the Court One ghosts of last year where she squandered match points to lose to Kristie Ahn in the first round.

“These are the moments you dream of as a little girl,” she said in her on-court interview.

“I don’t know why I’m getting emotional. I think I have had a really rough couple of years, like so many other people have. So this means a lot.

“I had a bit of a disaster match last year on this court, having match points. I really wanted to turn it around and win this year.”

...and so is Peniston!

British wild card Peniston is still pinching himself after a making his belated Wimbledon debut.

The 26-year-old from Southend, a virtual unknown until his run to the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club last month, beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen 6-4 6-3 6-2 on a packed Court 12 for a maiden grand slam win.

He said: “To be honest, I was chatting with my coach, Mark Taylor, yesterday and I was kind of saying I’m waiting for someone to pinch me and wake up back in May sometime. I’m just loving every second of it, to be honest.”

Peniston is a self-confessed late bloomer after overcoming a rare cancer as a baby which affected his growth as a teenager.

“I didn’t start growing until I was 15 or 16,” he added. “I was always about a foot smaller than all my peers.

“They all were growing and getting bigger serves and everything. I was struggling just trying to run around and get the balls.

“It made me definitely tougher as a player and a person I think. Yeah, it’s a blessing in disguise really.”

An impressive defensive performance saw left-hander Peniston register just 18 unforced errors to Laaksonen’s 44, while he secured six service breaks including one in the opening game.

The players exchanged breaks early in the third set before Peniston wrapped up victory with a further two breaks to book a meeting with American Steve Johnson, ranked 93 in the world.

Draper and Gray through too

Peniston's fellow Brit Draper also hit a significant milestone at Wimbledon with what appears likely to be the first of many grand slam victories.

The 20-year-old has shown this year that he is more than capable of building on his standout talent as a junior, rising more than 150 places in the rankings since taking a set off Novak Djokovic on his debut 12 months ago.

He drew another in-form player in Belgian Zizou Bergs, champion at the recent second-tier Challenger tournament in Ilkley, but Draper fought off three set points in the third set to claim a 6-4 6-4 7-6 (4) victory on Court 12.

The British number four is likely to get a bigger court assignment in the second round when he takes on Australian 19th seed Alex De Minaur.

“I came here confident. I’m ready to hopefully do some damage in this tournament. I believe in my ability. So let’s see how far I can go,” Draper said.

Gray added to the British success stories by beating 2018 Wimbledon boys’ singles champion and world number 95 Tseng Chun-hsin 6-3 6-3 7-6 (3) in the first round of his Grand Slam singles debut.

The 24-year-old from Twickenham, ranked 288 in the world, who attended the same US college as British number one Cameron Norrie, took the third set on a tie-break to potentially set up a clash with 11th seed Taylor Fritz in the next round.

Gray, the second lowest-ranked player in the men’s draw, had won ITF World Tennis Tour events in Shrewsbury and Glasgow this year but had never played above Challenger Tour level.