Andy Murray’s up and running in style

Fifth seed Murray cruised into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory over South African qualifier Kevin Anderson while Baltacha had to overcome cramp caused by the tension of facing ejection from the world's top 100 before finally beating France's Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

Murray was ruthless in his 97-minute match and admitted being allowed to play under a closed roof on Centre Court saved him from conditions that added to Baltacha's problems in her rain-hit contest on Court No7.

"The conditions are similar to Wimbledon with the roof closed," he said. "It slows the court down a bit, so that was a bit different but once you get on the court, at least you know the match will finish on time.

"You're not getting stopped and having watched some points of matches on the outside courts, you can see it's pretty windy out there — pretty tough conditions to play in."

Anderson looked impressive during qualifying for the Open, where his serve was not broken once but the fact the world No148 was dismantled so easily today illustrated the huge gulf that exists between the also-rans of men's tennis and the elite.

Murray ran his 6ft 8in opponent ragged as he mixed his game up from the back of the court with a sprinkling of serve and volleys. The Scot broke Anderson in six of his opening eight service games and did not drop a service game of his own despite only managing to get a paltry 35 per cent of his first serves in play.

Murray, 22, raced into a 5-0 lead and fired 18 winners en route to taking the opening set in 29 minutes.

The second set was routine again for the Briton with his only scare coming in the second game when he had to save three break points.

Anderson double faulted to go two sets down and now seemed resigned to his fate with both players ambling through the final set before Murray clinched victory with a further break. How Baltacha could have done with an easy run-out.

Britain's leading woman player has had her career shaped by injury and illness and she had to endure more agony today.

Baltacha had to contend with strong gusting winds, drizzle and cramp. It was looking bleak for her in the deciding set as she took every opportunity to stretch out her legs in a bid to ease the pain when, at 3-3, heavy rain arrived and forced the players back to the changing rooms.

The 26-year-old was able to seek help from the tour physios who worked throughout the short delay on those aching limbs. Baltacha eventually prevailed in one hour and 46 minutes — a huge relief for a player who is ranked a career high No83 in the world but, having reached the second round last year, would have dropped out of the top 100 had she lost.

Baltacha said: "A few things probably set the cramp off. This was a very important match for me because on paper I was the better player.

"But I knew that I couldn't take her for granted because she has been No40 in the world. I knew that if I didn't win a round here that I was going to go straight out of the top 100.

"I have worked so hard to get myself into the top 100 and now I fully believe that I am a top-100 player, and hopefully top 50.

"It would have been just such a shame for me to drop down to 120 or 130 in the world after this week.

"There was no way I was going to go down without a fight. I think all that just slightly tensed me up a little bit. There was a lot of tension and that's why I started getting cramps.

"Thankfully it started raining at 3-3 and then the physios were fantastic. They got ice onto my legs and started giving me more electrolytes and it really did help. It just kind of calmed everything down."

Baltacha insists she will have a totally different mindset in her second-round match with on No30 seed Kateryna Bondarenko, from Ukraine.

"I'm playing Kateryna and I have nothing to lose," said Baltacha. "She's a very good player and a seed, so I can just go out and just play tennis without getting tight, and just give it everything I have. I am more solid as a tennis player now and hopefully I can keep getting my ranking higher."