Teenager Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to reach the second round of Wimbledon with a battling 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 victory over Japan's Akiko Morigami on Monday.
Mirza arrived at the All England Club having already achieved an impressive list of firsts during 2005 and further boosted her growing reputation by bludgeoning her opponent into submission.
Mirza's victory set up an intriguing second-round showdown with US. Open champion and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who thrashed Briton Rebecca Llewellyn 6-0, 6-1 on Monday and will now be aiming to avenge her surprise defeat by the Indian in Dubai earlier this year.
The 18-year-old Mirza turned into an overnight celebrity in her homeland after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January.
After following that up by becoming the first woman from the sub-continent to win a WTA title, in her home town of Hyderabad, and to crack the world's top 100, expectations of a good run at Wimbledon had been high.
However, Morigami, who at 71 in the world is ranked four places above Mirza, threatened to tear up the script.
Mirza twice fought back from a break down in the third set before levelling it at 4-4.
Enjoying the majority of the crowd support on court 17, Mirza kept her cool in the humid conditions and got her forehand firing winners in all direction to gain the break back in the fourth and eighth games.
After seeing her first match point disappear with a backhand error, Mirza slapped a forehand into the corner to break Morigami for the fifth time and seal victory.
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