LONDON   -  Even though Novak Djokovic was nursing a dodgy right knee, toppling him at Wimbledon was never going to be easy for a Briton ranked 277th and so it proved to be as the Serb huffed and puffed into the third round with a 6-3 6-4 5-7 7-5 win over Jacob Fearnley.

The wildcard, who was ranked outside the world’s top 500 just a month ago before shooting up almost 250 spots after winning a second tier Challenger event in Nottingham, will take away many memorable moments from his Centre Court debut. He is unlikely to forget the ground-shaking, ear-splitting roar Djokovic let out after the Serb broke him for a 3-2 lead in the third set.

Fearnley will also cherish the memory of being applauded by one of the sport’s all-time greats when he produced a screaming crosscourt winner that went flying past Djokovic to earn him a break point in the next game. No doubt he will remember the thrill of breaking the 24-times Grand Slam champion for the first time, when the Serb dumped a backhand into the net, and the rapturous standing ovation that followed.

Fearnley will also mentally keep replaying the high-risk, high-reward strategy he employed in the final game of the third set, which ended with Djokovic hacking a forehand wide to surrender his serve and the set - to the delight of the hollering crowd. He had Djokovic on the ropes again after a double fault from the seven-times Wimbledon champion handed Fearnley two break points at 3-2 up in the fourth set.

Once the 37-year-old dodged that danger, it was clear that Djokovic’s unheralded opponent had got under his skin as he agitatedly held up his right forefinger to his lips in an attempt to shush the crowd.Unsurprisingly, the noisy partisan fans packed into the 15,000-capacity arena turned a deaf ear to that request as the decibel levels kept ratcheting up with every Fearnley winner.

But for all the heroics from the journeyman Scot, who until this week had never won a main tour match or even competed at a Grand Slam, he was simply not enough to tame a player who was chasing a record-extending 372nd match win in a Grand Slam arena.A forehand winner sealed Djokovic his passage into round three and ensured he kept up his 100% winning record at the majors against British players not named Andy Murray.

“Huge congrats to Jacob for an amazing match. He put in a great effort and played very good tennis,” said the second seed, who played with his right knee strapped after undergoing surgery on a torn meniscus just a month ago.”This match potentially deserved to get into a fifth the way we both played, the way he played particularly in the fourth, but I’m very glad it didn’t.”

Seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz became the third men’s top-eight player to make an early exit as he retired from his second-round clash against Frenchman Arthur Fils with a knee injury on Thursday.

Having made a slow start, Hurkacz was on course to level the match at two sets apiece when he dived for a volley at the net in the fourth set tiebreak to go 8-7 up, but landed badly and stayed on the turf to receive treatment on his right knee. Hurkacz limped on after a lengthy medical timeout before producing another desperate dive shortly after, but his movement was severely hampered. He threw in the towel at 7-6(2) 6-4 2-6 6-6 having gone down 9-8 in the tiebreak.

The US Stars and Stripes fluttered feebly for Jessica Pegula at Wimbledon as the fifth seed was ousted in the second round by China’s Wang Xinyu 6-4 6-7(9) 6-1 on American Independence Day. The Chinese player blasted 38 winners which, combined with 33 unforced errors from Pegula, secured victory and a third round match-up against Harriet Dart who beat fellow Briton Katie Boulter in a tense three-set thriller. For Wang, world number 42, the victory was her first over a top 10 player.