Serena Williams preserved her perfect first-round record at Wimbledon but it was hard work at times for the American as she took another step towards the Grand Slam.
Twenty-year-old Margarita Gasparyan, a Russian making her Wimbledon debut, broke serve at the first opportunity and led 3-1 in the opening set.
Yet back came Williams and in the end ran out a 6-4 6-1 winner, a scoreline that reflected her dominance once she found her footing.
It was her 17th first-round singles win at Wimbledon, with her record showing no losses at this stage.
A fall in the sixth game, and a code violation warning for an audible obscenity, might have put off a lesser player, but Williams put both behind her to recover the early break, and Gasparyan could not sustain a challenge after that point.
Williams is targeting the calendar Grand Slam of winning all four majors in the same year, a feat last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988.
She already holds the US Open, from last year, plus the Australian Open and French Open titles, so is a Wimbledon triumph away from the second non-calendar 'Serena Slam' of her illustrious career.
Fourth seed Maria Sharapova overwhelmed Britain’s Johanna Konta.
Russia's five-time grand slam winner dispatched Konta 6-2 6-2 to condemn Australia-born Konta to a fourth-successive defeat at SW19.
Konta lost to the eventual-champion Belinda Bencic at the Eastbourne quarter-finals but was unable to make that momentum count against Sharapova.
Earlier, former semi-finalist Victoria Azarenka coasted through her opening match to become the first woman through to the second round.
The 25-year-old Belarusian reached the last-four stage in 2011 and 2012, losing to Petra Kvitova and Williams, and is the 23rd seed this year.
She is a former world number one, however, and overwhelmed Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-2 6-1 in just 57 minutes on Court 12.
Venus Williams joined her younger sister in the second round by winning 6-0 6-0 against fellow American Madison Brengle.
The 35-year-old torched the hopes of an opponent 10 years her junior to achieve the rare 'double bagel' and make the prospect of an all-Williams fourth-round clash look perfectly realistic.
It took the five-time champion just 41 minutes on Court Three, firing six aces and 29 winners in all against an outclassed opponent.
There was remarkably another 6-0 6-0 victory minutes later as Andrea Petkovic of Germany inflicted the same humiliation on American Shelby Rogers, at 22-year-old who was making her Wimbledon debut.
Last week's Eastbourne champion, Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, recovered from a slow start to overcome Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 3-6 6-1 6-3.
