Elena Rybakina might have been forgiven for feeling somewhat overshadowed as she took to Court 12 for her second round match against Bianca Andreescu on Thursday.

At world No.23, Rybakina is ranked more than 30 places higher than world No.56 Andreescu. 

But while her opponent boasts a Grand Slam title – Andreescu making a stunning breakthrough when she claimed the 2019 US Open as a teenager – Rybakina’s best result in 11 Grand Slam appearances is as a quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros in 2021.

The 23-year-old from Kazakhstan's 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over Andreescu highlighted her ability to add to that record.

Taking one hour and 37 minutes to overcome the Canadian, she managed a test that was far tighter than the straight sets score suggested.

Andreescu had warmed up for The Championships by reaching a grass court final in Bad Homburg, and after winning a Wimbledon main draw match for the first time, against qualifier Emina Bektas in just 55 minutes on Tuesday, she was clearly determined to maintain that authority.

Neither Andreescu nor Rybakina were allowing any openings in their service games early in the encounter, with not a single break point featuring in the first nine games of the first set.

But suddenly there was a flurry of them, as Rybakina capitalised on errors from Andreescu, converting on her first set point.

Despite a 2-0 advantage for the Kazakh, there were multiple swings of momentum in the second set.

Rybakina couldn’t consolidate her early service break and after holding another to gain a 5-3 lead, serving out the match proved overwhelming.

As the set progressed to a tie-break, a decider seemed increasingly likely.

Perhaps forcing too much, Andreescu double faulted to hand Rybakina a first match point opportunity.

It evaporated with a backhand miss, before the No.17 seed forced another Andreescu error to secure her progress into the third round.

It’s a comfortable position for Rybakina, who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last year, falling to No. 4 seed Aryna Sabalenka.

Scheduled to face Qinwen Zheng for the opportunity to repeat that result, she’ll aim to produce more of her second round big hitting.

Watched by fellow Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2016, Rybakina’s 23 total winners just outnumbered her 21 unforced errors.

There was an equal tally of four aces and four double faults as she won 80 per cent of her first service points and converted three of four break point opportunities.

Clearly not shy to brandish some aggressive tennis, Rybakina is also unafraid to step out of the shadows.

“I think it was a well-fought match from the both of us. I feel like she took her opportunities a bit more than I did,” Andreescu said of her first encounter with the 23-year-old.

“I didn't expect for her serve to be that good … she did play well, and she was getting to a bunch of balls. She was pretty solid, both sides. She played a really great match.”

After recent absences from the Tour while managing some health issues, Andreescu could also take positives from her overall performance this Wimbledon.

“I didn't expect to be at this stage, actually, a couple months ago. So I'm super happy. Obviously it's disappointing, because, you know, you're at a Grand Slam, you want to do really well,” she said. “But yeah, I have just got to keep working.”

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