Day 4 and welcome to Wimbledon, gentlemen. How we have missed you. And, it turns out, how they have missed us.

Thanks to the dismal weather and leaking skies over the past few days, Alexander Zverev and Gijs Brouwer had not had the chance to a lift a racket in earnest until Thursday lunchtime.

Obviously, there was no time to lose if either man was to catch up with the rest of those left in the locker room so Zverev did not hang about: he won 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in two hours and 15 minutes. Now he has to do it all over again on Friday and possibly Saturday if he is to get back on track.

“He was a very tough opponent, the rain was a very tough opponent as well,” Zverev said. “But I’m just happy to be back at Wimbledon after missing it last year with a pretty bad injury. I’m just happy to be on this court again. It’s something that I’ve really missed.

“I was ready to start the tournament next Saturday, to be honest, but luckily I got to play today and I think I’m playing tomorrow again and I think I’m playing after tomorrow…I mean, if I win, of course! In my mind I am. It’s going to be a tough few days for me with a lot of back-to-back matches, especially with Grand Slam best-of-five set matches – it’s never easy physically. But, like I said, I’m just glad to be playing tennis right now.

Zverev and Brouwer are part of the same generation. But while the tall German led his peers in the charge to usurp the Big Three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic), when he looked over his shoulder, he saw no sign of Brouwer. The Dutchman was at the back of the throng and only now, at the age of 27, is he making his Wimbledon debut.

Although he is one year younger, Zverev has played 106 Grand Slam matches and won 77 of them. He has won 363 of 529 Tour-level matches winning two ATP Tour Finals, an Olympic gold medal and five Masters 1000 titles along the way (and 19 tournament trophies in all).

And he has reached a Grand Slam final (New York in 2020).

Brouwer’s CV is somewhat shorter: two Grand Slam matches played prior to this (won one; lost one); nine of 16 Tour-level matches won and no titles collected. The biggest number on his record is his ranking: No.153.

Yet it was Brouwer (also known as Gus) who came flying out of the traps, leathering his serve and battering his forehand, and looking more than a match for the slightly tentative Zverev. His left-handed serve and his ability to stay back and battle coupled with a willingness to come forward had the former world No.2 retreating back into his shell as the match began.

Quite why Brouwer had been hiding these talents on the ITF and Challenger circuits all these years was a mystery. If he could play this well on his least favourite surface then just think of the trouble he could cause on a clay or hard court. Such riddles were the last thing on Zverev’s mind, though. He needed to get his game up and running – and he needed to do it sharpish.

Sure enough, Zverev cranked up his serve and started to unwrap his own forehand (a mighty shot by anyone’s standards). The confidence was coming back and he was beginning to look like a serious threat to anyone. And when Brouwer threw in a miserable service game of unforced errors, the first set was heading Zverev’s way.

This would normally be the point when the lesser ranked, less experienced man would wilt. He had had his moment in the sun for half an hour or so and now it was time to go home. But not our Gus.

He was not going anywhere and sticking to his game plan, he had a couple of set points in the second set tie-break. Even when he lost them and the set, he stood firm.

Keeping a vicelike grip on his own serve, Brouwer stuck with his taller, more famous foe all the way through to another tie-break.

Even then he did not fold; Zverev had to pull out a couple of stunning passing shots to gain the upper hand. He had been tested and despite the three days of delays, he had come through with flying colours.

The next test comes in the shape of Yosuke Watanuki, a lucky loser from Japan.

New this year:

See the draw like never before, with interactive Path to the Final view of the draw by clicking a player’s name on the draws page

See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play

View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis