Emma Raducanu battles past Alison van Uytvanck in straight sets at Wimbledon

Emma Raducanu put her troubled build-up behind her as she marked her Centre Court debut by defeating Alison Van Uytvanck to reach the second round of Wimbledon.

The 10th seed’s participation in the tournament was in doubt until the weekend because of a side strain suffered at the WTA Tour event in Nottingham three weeks ago.

Coupled with the huge attention on the US Open champion’s homecoming and a tricky opponent, this was a major test, but Raducanu passed it impressively by claiming a 6-4, 6-4 victory. She will play France’s Caroline Garcia in the second round in another difficult encounter after the former world No 4 defeated Britain’s Yuriko Miyazaki in a final set tiebreak.

Centre Court was only half full when Raducanu took her first steps on it as spectators took a break following Novak Djokovic’s victory, but she received an enthusiastic welcome from those left.

While the 19-year-old had given an upbeat assessment of her fitness and mindset at her press conference on Saturday, the stresses of a match, particularly such a high-profile one, are inevitably different to practice.

But there were no early causes for alarm as Raducanu threw herself into serves and groundstrokes, missing two break points in the opening game but then saving three on her own serve as the first two games lasted a gruelling 17 minutes.

Van Uytvanck was certainly not the kindest draw Raducanu could have been given, with the 46th-ranked Belgian having won a grass-court title last weekend - albeit at second-tier level - in Italy, while she upset defending champion Garbine Muguruza on her way to the fourth round in 2018.

Raducanu had managed just seven games before retiring in Nottingham so negotiating this hurdle in any fashion was all that