Susan Egelstaff secured Great Britain's first win of the London 2012 badminton competition with a comfortable defeat of Slovenia's Maja Tvrdy.
In a match watched by Prince Charles at Wembley Arena, the Scot, ranked 38, overpowered the world number 89 21-15 21-10 in just 34 minutes.
It was a perfect Olympic debut for 29-year-old Egelstaff, who missed four months of the qualifying campaign with a serious leg injury.
She now has three days to prepare for her second match in Group H against 12th seed Sayaka Sato of Japan on Tuesday.
Egelstaff's performance also gave the crowd plenty to cheer at the start of the second session after those present in the morning witnessed defeat for Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier in the mixed doubles.
Egelstaff, who improved her overall record against Tvrdy to 4-1 in her favour, dominated from the outset.
Egelstaff, 29, feared she would miss the Olympics after shattering her thigh bone last October and was just as pleased to have been playing as she was to have won.
The Glaswegian said: "It's so nice just to be here. It was looking very unlikely a few months ago. It is a really nice feeling to be here and everything is totally fine now."
Egelstaff felt the home crowd also played a role in her victory.
"Quite often when I play nobody is watching," said Egelstaff, who added that she did not want to make herself look silly by curtsying to Prince Charles. "It makes you concentrate and not give away stupid points."