Unlikely ace Eaton serves up a lesson on grass

There is a World Group relegation play-off tie against Austria at Wimbledon in September and anyone who can serve like that must be in contention for a place? "There's nothing I can do about Davis Cup except keep playing the way I'm playing," said Eaton. "I'm just concentrating on Wimbledon right now - the Davis Cup hasn't even entered my mind." Fair enough.

It was hard not to be impressed by the confidence and focus of a man who became one of the lowest ranked first round winners in the last 10 years at Wimbledon. Eaton sits at 661 in the world, fully 550 places below the opponent he dispatched in straight sets - as he had done in six previous pre-qualifying and regular qualifying matches to reach the main draw.

German Nicolas Kiefer had no ranking when he won in 2007 but, as with Krajicek (ranked at 1093) in 2002, he was coming back from an extended lay-off through injury.

Eaton joins that list with the credit that comes with putting in the hard hours on the ATP Tour's second tier - the Challenger and Futures circuit.

"Playing on the Futures circuit is very hard," he explained. "There's no glamour, there's nothing. You just have to get out there and motivate yourself. There's no atmosphere. You have just got to fight for every single point, fight for every single match and hopefully end up here. Obviously my hard work's paid off."

Many British players have painted a sorry picture of life working their way up the rankings, but Eaton tells his story with a mixture of steely determination, confidence and acceptance that the hard graft is simply a necessity. There appears a part of him that even embraces it; a control freak element to his character.

"I strung my own racket yesterday morning," he revealed. "We have a stringing machine at the National Tennis Centre and I always string my rackets there. That way, I know exactly how my racket is going to come out. I thought I might as well do it myself, then I know exactly what I am getting.

"I also drove to the NTC this morning where I get transport in to Wimbledon because my parents' house is too far away. I drive a Vauxhall Astra with duct tape on one wing mirror. The £17,000 I get for getting to the second round is a lot - it's going to help me travel around. I don't know how much I have earned so far but it won't be that much."

Next up for Eaton is Dmitry Tursunov, who is seeded 25 and has a history of denting British hopes. Tursunov beat Tim Henman at Wimbledon in 2005, Queen's Club in 2007 and Nottingham a year later as his hard-hitting style weighed heavy on a player in the twilight of his career.

It's a daunting challenge but Eaton is looking forward getting out on the Wimbledon courts again.

"To be honest, yesterday was the most frustrating day because I went to bed the day before thinking I was third on. Then they put a match on to finish which made me fourth. That match went to 10-8 in the third. Then another match was meant to finish; it didn't. "It took a long time and it was actually getting a bit tedious. I just wanted to get out there and give it my best.

"Tursunov has got some firepower. I've seen him quite a lot on TV and it should be a great match. I just need to concentrate on what I'm doing, keep serving well and then I can put some pressure on the guy."

Elsewhere, Jamie Baker's dramatic return to Wimbledon ended in disappointment. The 21-year-old fell victim to a virus called ITP - Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura - while training in Florida in January, which left him susceptible to life-threatening internal bleeding.

In April, doctors deemed it unlikely Baker would play but his remarkable recovery puts his 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Stefano Galvani of Italy into perspective.