Those early evening shadows had all but blanketed No.1 Court before Grigor Dimitrov and Federico Delbonis had struck a ball on Monday.
Even with the late start, Delbonis’s stay in London could not have been much shorter.
Keen to avoid any chance of fading light intervening, Dimitrov - the No.11 seed - made a hasty move through their first round clash, needing under an hour and a half to see off the Argentinian 6-3, 6-0, 6-4.
Only a day earlier, Delbonis was grinding it out on the clay in Milan capturing his sixth Challenger crown with victory in the Aspria Tennis Cup.
Winning form, maybe, but it left him with next to no preparation on the grass coming into the match and despite Kei Nishikori and Simone Bollelli’s five-set match buying him precious hours’ rest, he looked lethargic and laboured on the lower-bouncing grass.
The left-handed Argentinian lists wins over Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka on his CV, but both came on clay and on Monday the contrast in grass court credentials could not have been more apparent.
Dimitrov, desperate to resurrect a mediocre start to 2015, arrived having fallen in the Round of 16 in his Queen’s Club title defence last week.
After getting the better of big-serving American Sam Querrey, he had fallen at the next hurdle to dangerous Luxembourger lefty Gilles Muller, leaving him short on matchplay coming into the third major of the year with a 19-12 record for the season, a far cry from the form he brought to London 12 months earlier.
Delbonis, with a career-high ranking of No.34 last year now stood at No.82 and had never won a match on grass.
Only 12 months ago, the 2008 junior champion put paid to Andy Murray’s Wimbledon title defence in emphatic style on Centre Court to reach his maiden Grand Slam semi-final.
He fell to Novak Djokovic in four but the signs were promising he was knocking on the door of a first Grand Slam title.
The Bulgarian had claimed the Queen’s Club title in London only weeks before and would finish his season with titles on three different surfaces.
But his Grand Slam results since his run at SW19 last year have been mixed, failing to reach a quarter-final since. He was humbled in straight sets in the fourth round by Frenchman Gael Monfils in New York, another fourth-round exit followed in Melbourne, this time to Murray; and the biggest surprise of all – a straight-sets dismissal in the first round to American Jack Sock in Paris.
On Monday though, he was never really troubled.
When Delbonis pushed a forehand wide to surrender the first break of the match Dimitrov would go on to bring up set point with a backhand winner whipped crosscourt. He followed it up with an ace before going on a tear in the second set, looping a forehand pass crosscourt to break for 5-0 before ensuring the bagel with a forehand volley winner.
A love hold serving for the match and Dimitrov was comfortably through to a second-round meeting with American Steve Johnson, a five-set victor over Slovak Lukas Lacko.
The sun is not setting on the Bulgarian’s Wimbledon charge any time soon.
