Alexander Zverev claimed his 50th ATP Tour-level win on grass to reach the third round at Wimbledon, defeating Valentin Royer in straight sets.

Zverev will face American Marcos Giron for a spot in the last 16, having emerged as a 6-1 6-3 7-6 (7-3) victor after two hours and five minutes on Court One.

It looked as though the Roland-Garros champion would storm through the match in quick time when he took the first set in 32 minutes and the second in 34 minutes.

However, a brief drop-off near the end of the third set almost allowed Royer to extend the contest to a fourth, with the Frenchman recovering from a break down to get it back on serve in the eighth game.  

Zverev had to hold twice, to love on the first occasion and with a few nerves on the second, to stay in the set, but when the tie-break began, his booming serve did the work.

The German stormed into a 6-1 lead and, after watching Royer save his first two match points, he served a searing ace straight down the middle to secure the victory.

Earlier on Thursday, breakout star Rafael Jodar rallied to defeat Pablo Carreno Busta 3-6 6-3 1-6 6-3 6-4 in a match that had been suspended due to loss of light on Wednesday.

Jodar was behind when proceedings resumed on Court Two, but he was relentless after the restart as he became only the third Spanish teenager to reach the third round of Wimbledon in the Open Era, after Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.

Fifth seed Alex de Minaur enjoyed a straightforward outing against Adrian Mannarino, winning 6-3 6-2 6-2, while Taylor Fritz beat fellow American Patrick Kypson 6-2 6-2 7-5.

Gabriel Diallo suffered an early exit, though, losing 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 to Lorenzo Sonego, who will take on Fritz next.

Fifty up for Zverev on grass

Ahead of Thursday's match, a mere 13.5% of Zverev's grand slam wins (17/126) had come at Wimbledon – the third-lowest ratio among all men with 100+ victories at the majors in the Open Era. 

He was put through his paces in his first-round matchup with Alexander Blockx, winning 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-0), but this performance was a tad more convincing.

Zverev fired off 14 aces to his opponent's three while only double-faulting twice, winning 85% of his first-serve points (46/54) and only giving up a single break point, though Royer did convert that chance in the third set.

The 29-year-old also registered 37 winners to 15 for Royer, although his 14 unforced errors in the third set alone almost allowed Royer to take the contest deeper (28 in total).

In the end, though, Zverev came through for his 50th Tour-level win on grass and his 95th win at the slams since the start of 2020 – only Novak Djokovic (126) has more in that time (also 95 for Jannik Sinner).