Francesca Jones battle through pain barrier at Wimbledon but unable to prevent defeat to Petra Martic

The 23-year-old, from Oxenhope, was in clear discomfort and struggling to move for much of a bizarre deciding set late on Tuesday evening during which she was initially denied a medical time out due to the issue being deemed to be cramp related.

She bravely continued after eventually receiving treatment at the change of ends but, with world No 1 Iga Swiątek awaiting the victor, the world No 215 was powerless to prevent Martic prevailing 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Wild card Jones was back in the main draw at the All England Club for the first time since losing to Coco Gauff on her Championships debut three years ago.

Jones raced into a 3-0 lead against a player ranked 130 places higher before holding her nerve to close out the opening set after being pegged back to 3-3.

However, Croatian Martic breezed through the second set and then, with her opponent severely hampered by injury, cruised into a round-two clash with five-time grand slam winner Swiatek.

Katie Boulter is braced for a battle with compatriot Harriet Dart after she recovered from a poor start to beat former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria and set up an all-British second-round tie.

Boulter, seeded for the first time at the Championships, was 4-1 down inside quarter of an hour on Court Three, but showed trademark gutsiness to fight back and earn a 7-6 (6) 7-5 victory in two hours and seven minutes.

Familiar foe Dart is up next on Thursday in what will be their eighth meeting, with the most recent going the way of Boulter in Nottingham last month for her sixth win against the world No 100.

“We both know each other’s games inside-out, back-to-front at this point.

“We’ve played so many matches, but I do have to draw on the last things that I have played with her and use that to my advantage in the next round.

“I think it’s going to be extremely tough. I have a lot of respect for her on this surface. It’s one of her favourite ones. This is actually her home club, she’s been here since she was a tiny tot with her mum.

“It’s exciting. You have two Brits here who are playing some very good tennis. Yeah, she’s someone that’s going to make it very hard for me. I’m going to have to bring my A-game.”

British No 2 Dart admitted it would be great if the second-round tie could be on one of the show courts.

Dart added: “We’re team-mates, we played big tournaments, we’ve grown up together. We’ve been close.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s always going to be tricky, whoever I play, especially when you play a fellow Brit, but it’s great to see that all of us are doing well and putting us in positions where we do get to play each other, hopefully more so in the latter rounds.

“She’s been having an amazing year. She’s been playing great.

“It would be cool to play on a big court. A lot of people will play this tournament many times and not get the opportunity to play on the most historic court ever.”

Asked about potentially being on Centre Court, Boulter admitted: “I honestly don’t know.

“Yeah, we’re going to find out. Again, not up to me. We’ll see what happens. Should be a fun match for pretty much everyone involved.”