Twice Wimbledon champion Rafa Nadal emerged victorious from a memorable four-set duel with Australian wild man Nick Kyrgios that delivered everything it had promised in front of an enraptured Centre Court crowd on Thursday.
The fiery Kyrgios threw everything he had at the third seed - including an extraordinary 143mph second-serve ace - and undoubtedly had him rattled before the Spaniard eventually prevailed 6-3 3-6 7-6(5) 7-6(3) in the second round clash.
It was the best match of Wimbledon’s opening week as, amongst the expected histrionics, both men hit the heights with some relentlessly powerful and accurate serving in particular.
Nadal started strongly, got pegged back as Kyrgios fuelled himself with fury in a second set full of incident, then came through a high-octane tiebreak to take the third.
The 43rd-ranked Kyrgios then gave a reminder that amid all the antics there is a player of huge quality, one of the few with the weapons to challenge the game’s dominant trio, with 33-year-old Nadal the one he seems most able to unsettle.
Nadal, however, is not one to take a backward step and again showed his mettle in the clutch moments to come through for a third round meeting with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nadal was in complete control in the early stages and Kyrgios seemingly needed an injection of emotion to fire him up. The Spaniard duly provided it with his slow-motion movement between points and a surprise toilet break after the first set.
The Australian made his mark when he blasted a 143mph (230kph) second serve-ace - the fastest serve of any sort during the tournament so far and the second-fastest second serve in ATP history. He followed up with another ace – via a gentle under-arm lob – though still lost the first set comfortably.]
Kyrgios was far more impressive in taking the second, breaking early with a fierce forehand down the line that saw the crowd erupt as they realised they were in for a real match.
When Kyrgios did concentrate on his tennis, he was full of invention and variety - introducing an Ali shuffle after his big winners and upsetting a rival he already had history with by launching a return straight at him at the net, earning a glare in return.
The decisive tiebreak was perhaps a microcosm of the two men’s careers. Kyrgios suffered a first mini-break when netting a point-blank overhead that would have shamed a park player, then mis-hit two returns as Nadal found the lines with every shot.
For the second time in four days a Wimbledon champion called Williams found herself being whipped by a high school teenager but in the end it was Serena Williams dishing out the punishment on Thursday.
The 37-year-old missed easy slam-dunk smashes, she belted the ball wide while on break point and glared down on the net after yet another of her shots got tangled up at the bottom of the black mesh.
Taking on a Wimbledon debutante whose Grand Slam record stood at a slightly more modest 1-1, the result appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
When the American finally broke Juvan in the opening game of the second set, it was game on.
Williams had a chance to grab a double break for a 4-1 lead but Juvan played like a seasoned professional as she refused to get intimidated by her rival’s reputation.
The world number 133 saved break point by luring the 11th seed into the net with a dropshot and then just stood back to watch a screaming Williams wildly belt the ball into the backboards.
Williams did go on to win the set, and eventually the match, but she knows that if she wants to hoist the Rosewater Dish for an eighth time, she needs to improve in all departments.
Eight-time champion Roger Federer beat British wildcard Jay Clarke in straight sets to reach Wimbledon's third round.
The second seed, 37, was tested in the second set but otherwise dominated the 20-year-old, ranked 169th, to win 6-1 7-6 (7-3) 6-2.
The Swiss has lost to a British player at Wimbledon on just one occasion - when Tim Henman defeated him in the quarter-finals in 2001.
Federer cruised through the opening set in 29 minutes as Clarke struggled to get to grips with the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
But the British number four looked much more assured in the second and was cheered on by the Court One crowd as he took the set to a tie-break.
Clarke edged ahead, only for Federer to respond by winning five points in a row to eventually clinch it 7-3 for a two-set lead.
The Swiss then accelerated away again in the third to progress in one hour and 36 minutes as Clarke sliced a backhand into the tramlines on match point.
Clarke had two opportunities to break the Federer serve in the first set and they went begging, while Federer had five breakpoints in the match and took four of them.
