A first venture to Roehampton’s lawn tennis courts comes as quite a novelty to Philipp Kohlschreiber, a wily tour veteran of 17 years.

While new to the experience of Wimbledon qualifying – having contested every main draw at SW19 since his debut in 2005 – it will also be his last.

A decade after his finest stint on a Grand Slam stage with a run to the quarter-finals at the All England Club, the 38-year-old announced this would be his swansong.

Not one for drawn out farewell tours, the German subtly revealed that his retirement beckoned following his 6-2, 6-2 victory over Frenchman Gregoire Barrere on Monday.

“I mean, a funny story. It's the first time for me in Roehampton,” Kohlschreiber said. “It's been a great and wonderful career. It's going to be my last tournament. I'm going to stop after Wimbledon 2022, so I'm pretty happy that I have another match here and maybe I make it to the main draw.”

Following a quarter-final appearance at a Marbella Challenger event in April, the German had not won a match but quickly found his feet in his first grass court match since a heartbreaking five set loss to Denis Shapovalov in the opening round at Wimbledon last year.

He has not missed a Wimbledon main draw since being beaten by Richard Gasquet on his debut in 2005.

His failure to make the cut at the grass court on home soil in Halle for the first time called for an unconventional change in preparations.

“It's my first grass court match of the season. I practised on hard court, but I felt the ball pretty good and I think, if you know tennis players, I'm a good mover,” he said ahead of his next clash against Mikhail Kukushkin. “Especially on grass, you need to have quick footwork and it helped me a lot.”

The former world No.16, who has 25 wins against top 10 players in his long career, has reached the fourth round at every Grand Slam event, but has progressed any further only once, in 2012.

Little more than a week after he thwarted Rafael Nadal in Halle that year, Kohlschreiber took down his compatriot, Tommy Haas, in a five set opening round victory at Wimbledon before Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eventually denied him a semi-final berth.

As for his retirement plans, they remain wide open. “I just want to finish and, for sure, it's going to be a kind of special moment,” he said. “I'm more a quiet person. I don't want to be saying it's my last season ... It's been a very long journey. I had great memories, especially over here with the biggest success in a Grand Slam, so maybe the last breath is pretty long this year.”

Less than a month since he surprised himself with a dash to the third round in his final Roland- Garros appearance, former world No.6 Gilles Simon was unable to prolong his last Wimbledon campaign.

Croatian Duje Ajdukovic moved through comfortably at the expense of the 37-year-old Frenchman, 6-2, 6-3.

“It's nice to beat someone that you've been watching on TV for a long time,” the 21-year-old, who booked a showdown with Argentine Santiago Fa Rodriguez Taverna, said. “But it was clear he wasn't near his top level today, so it's not the perfect situation.”

John Lloyd, the former British player and now a pundit for wimbledon.com, said the likes of Kohlschreiber and Simon faced a huge adjustment as they contested qualifying, having been fixtures in the top 20.

An athlete’s acceptance that their time was all but up was one of the most difficult challenges. “You've been there, done it. You're used to playing on the main courts at Wimbledon or any of the Slams and then you go back into qualifying,” Lloyd said.

“It shows to me how much they love the game that they're still out there doing it. If you love the game, then play as long as you want to but once you start losing the desire to practise then it's time to go.”

The added attention Kohlschreiber had now invited, having announced his retirement plans, was to be expected. But that pressure could fuel one final push for glory.

“He doesn't want to say to himself in his career that I ended at Wimbledon losing in the Qualifying,” Lloyd said. “He wants to have one more go where he might come up against a big seed on Centre Court, No.1 [Court], and have a fun time.”