He also slipped and fell to his back while moving up to the net in the concluding tiebreaker but appeared to be OK.
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No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska moved serenely into the second round of Wimbledon with a straight set win over Kateryna Kozlova.
The scoreline was harsh on the 22-year-old, who was making her main-draw debut at SW19. The sixth game saw Kozlova hold her serve for the first time and she looked to have gained a better control over her shot-making. Radwanska has never lost in the first round here, although she has been vulnerable to defeat from unlikely challengers elsewhere.
Despite the grim forecast for the rest of the day, at least three matches were guaranteed to be completed on Centre Court.
The official forecast provided by Wimbledon warned of “significant” threats of rain throughout the day, giving organisers a further headache.
Before play was stopped by rain on the outside courts, three players managed to finish matches that had been suspended the previous day: 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych completed a 7-5, 7-5 (5), 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over Ivan Dodig; Andrea Petkovic, seeded No. 32, beat Nao Hibino of Japan, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2; and Evgeniya Rodina downed Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 7-5. It was a busy day as quite a few matches that were cancelled on Tuesday had to be adjusted within the day’s roster.
Play has started on the outside courts at Wimbledon after a rain delay of about an hour. Meanwhile rain continued to hamper the day’s scheduled play and 10 women’s matches were cancelled on the second consecutive day. That leaves Wednesday’s schedule packed with a mix of first- and second-round contests. “I was close [to winning the title] a couple of times, it’s another year to try and hopefully I can do better”.
Marcus Willis, 25, is the lowest-ranked qualifier to reach the second round of a Grand Slam since 1988.
Now, Willis gets to face Federer on the most famous court in tennis, with a large group of friends and family on hand to support him in a journey that has captivated the British public.
That was to be followed by defending champion Novak Djokovic facing Adrian Mannarino of France and Roger Federer’s clash with world number 772 Marcus Willis.
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While Radwanska got under way against Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova, play everywhere else was halted and a Wimbledon spokeswoman said there would be no resumption before 2.30pm.
