Ekaterina Alexandrova marked her debut appearance in a grand slam main draw with the biggest win of her career against Ana Ivanovic on day one of Wimbledon.

The 21-year-old only made her WTA main draw bow in April at the Katowice Open and had to battle through two marathon matches to reach round one at the All England Club, where she secured a 6-2 7-5 victory.

Alexandrova had won the deciding set against Stephanie Vogt 14-12 in the qualifiers, before beating Harriet Dart 13-11 in the third set to make the main event.

She showed no signs of nerves on Court 12 against 2007 semi-finalist Ivanovic as she rattled off five games in a row to move one set ahead – Ivanovic unable to put any pressure on her opponent's serve.

Ivanovic showed more fight in the second, but Alexandrova was not to be denied her moment in the spotlight after a break in the 11th game, before holding off three break points as she served for the match.

Defeat will be a huge blow for 23rd seed Ivanovic, with her hopes of closing the gap on the top 10 suffering another blow.