- 1,612
- 9
- 38
Sat just behind Federer in the Royal Box, at Murray's instigation, was former Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who the Scot was moved to learn had watched his 2016 triumph from her cell.
"It was very emotional talking to her and hearing her story," he said. "It was brilliant that she was able to come along and watch. I wanted to invite her to come along and watch the tennis in totally different circumstances."
By starting a 15th campaign, Murray matched the open era record for a British man set by Jeremy Bates, and he would have taken confidence from knowing that in nearly 1,000 tour-level matches he had never lost to a player ranked as low as Peniston's 268.
The 27-year-old from Essex, who survived cancer as a toddler, settled well on his Centre Court debut and was the better of the two for much of the first set, but he was unable to take either of two early chances to break the Murray serve and paid for one loose game.