Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda enjoyed their first ever victories at Wimbledon on Tuesday as the Japanese stars produced dominant displays to surge into the second round.
Nishikori, returning from a stomach injury, marked his first match since April with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win over Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin.
It was his first win at the All England Club at his fourth attempt and secured a second round tie against Andrey Kuznetsov or Florent Serra.
The 22-year-old made history earlier this year when he became the first Japanese man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals in 80 years after a surprise five-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
But his progress suffered a setback when he was hit by a stomach injury against Fernando Verdasco in Barcelona that forced him to miss the rest of the claycourt campaign, including the French Open.
Nishikori was finally back in action here and he quickly hit a rich vein of form that gave him the belief he could go deep into the second week of the tournament.
"Yeah, for sure. I got a little confidence from Australia and being in the top 20, and I'm seeded for the first time here. So I have a lot of confidence," said Nishikori, who suffered ankle and knee injuries during the match but expects to recover in time for his next match.
"This is a big win for me and especially since I have just come back from injury. I was a bit nervous beforehand because I was coming back from injury straight into a grand slam. This one means a lot to me."
There was more good news for Japan as Soeda enjoyed his first ever Grand Slam victory, crushing Russia's Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to set up a second round clash with former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro or Robin Haase.
Soeda, the world number 58, had been beaten in the first round in his two previous appearances in the main draw here and had also failed to get past the opening match in four visits to the Australian, French and US Opens.
The 27-year-old was hardly in great form heading into Wimbledon this year after losing in the first round in three of his last four tournaments.
But Soeda made his own small piece of history as he brushed aside the world number 114 with a brilliant display.
In the women's singles, China's Zheng Jie had to dig deep to defeat Stephanie Dubois of Canada 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Zheng, seeded 25th, reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2008, but she hasn't been past the second round since then.
The 28-year-old took a step towards improving that disappointing run with a gutsy recovery from a set down against the world number 109.
Zheng takes on another Canadian, Aleksandra Wozniak, for a place in the last 32.
