It was straight sets but it was certainly not straightforward as Andy Murray overcame a little stutter to get his Wimbledon campaign under way.
In the final analysis, no-one really remembers the manner of early round victories in a Grand Slam tournament that requires seven victories in a fortnight.
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin has taken sets off big name players in the past but the world number 59 is yet to make the breakthrough and Murray wasn’t about to let that change on his Centre Court second home.
He had looked determined to get on and off court as quickly as possible in the first set, hardly surprising as temperatures soared above 40 degrees.
But his rival proved frustratingly stubborn in the second, spurning a chance to serve for the set and then losing the tie-break, as Murray roared to himself at the changeover and duly rallied.
And he finally closed out the match 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes to book a second round match with Robin Haase, who came through a four set encounter with Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.
“I wasn’t frustrated because sometimes your opponent doesn’t allow you to play your best,” said Murray.
“Obviously, wanted to try to play a little bit better. He was making it difficult for me to play well and there’s still some things I could have done better out there.
“The way he played just made it extremely difficult to play sort of offensive tennis and sometimes knuckle down and try to get the win.
“It doesn’t say on this match report how well I played, it just says that I won the match. That’s the most important thing.”
Murray is used to being the standard bearer for British tennis but he’ll be joined in the second round by three other home players after Aljaz Bedene and James Ward won their first round matches to progress alongside Liam Broady and Murray.
It’s the first time since 2006 that four British men have overcome first round opponents at SW19.
“It’s certainly nice for me to have some company and it’s good for British tennis,” added Murray. “The more wins and more players we can have in these events, it makes a difference.”
