Home hope Edmund gets the job done early but Tsitsipas and Zverev suffer early exits

In the absence – from the singles draw, at least – of Andy Murray, it is up to Kyle Edmund to carry the nation’s hopes and dreams for the coming fortnight.

It is a huge task, a big ask and, for so many men in the past who found themselves volunteered to be the local favourite, a terrifying prospect. Edmund, though, has overcome his first hurdle with some aplomb and yesterday disposed of the enthusiastic, if limited, challenge of Jaume Munar from Spain 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

The 22-year-old from Mallorca had never won a grass-court match in his life as he made his Wimbledon debut – and Edmund made sure it stayed that way. The younger man ran and chased, he flung himself at returns and he threw in a few aces. But it was not enough. Once the first set was decided, the big, pale bloke from Yorkshire was not going to be stopped from reaching the second round and an appointment with Fernando Verdasco.

That said, the first set took a fair bit of work and Edmund needed ten set points to secure his lead. But once he had his nose in front, the world No 30 got stronger and stronger while Munar ran out of steam. Only when he came to serve for the match did Edmund falter but by that point he was two sets and 5-2 to the good. When he got a second chance to conclude proceedings, he made no mistake and wrapped up his win with an ace.

“It was great for me,” Edmund said. “Coming through in straight sets – I had to work hard for it, for sure. He’s a guy that puts lots of balls in, asking a lot of questions, making you win the points, not giving you a lot of pace on the ball. I knew I was favoured on paper, probably on the court as well, having a bit more experience than him, won more grass-court matches. But you have to respect that and go and do the job professionally.”

Taking the level of expectation up a notch, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev are not just heroes, they are now fully-fledged global stars in waiting. Both have been tipped to win major titles by champions past and present and yet neither made it through the first round yesterday.

Tsitsipas claims that grass is his favourite surface and yet his record on the stuff this year suggests he is still learning his trade. He took a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 pasting from Thomas Fabbiano, the world No 102 from Italy. He tried to adapt to the grass, lost his way and fell far short of his expectations. But, in his opinion, that is the problem with all the young guns of this era: they cannot live up to the hype.

“We’ve seen players my age, many years ago – I would like to name Rafa [Nadal], Roger [Federer] – seemed very mature and professional what they were doing. They had consistency from a young age. They always did well tournament by tournament without major drops or inconsistency. It’s something that we as the Next Gen players lack, including myself as well, have: this inconsistency week by week. It’s a week-byweek problem basically, that we cannot adjust to that.”

Zverev took his lesson from Jiri Vesely from the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Before the tournament, he had claimed that this was the time for the younger generation to make their move and depose the likes of Federer and Nadal. But when it came to it, the German world No 5 could not follow do it.

“It was a typical grand slam match for me,” he said. “I started off well, then one or two things don’t go my way, and everything kind of a little bit falls apart.

“I’m not very high on confidence right now. I didn’t lose this match on tennis. It’s just, yeah, my confidence is below zero right now.”