WIMBLEDON, England — Mischa Zverev was confused. Something was wrong with his opponent, Bernard Tomic. He just could not be sure of what.

“It was quite awkward because he beat me quite easily a few days ago so I was expecting a tough match,” Zverev said.

Having lost to Tomic in straight sets just last week, a puzzled Zverev advanced to the second round of Wimbledon on Tuesday in their rematch, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in a 1-hour-24-minute battle of players with different styles, headed in opposite directions and playing with very different intentions.

Zverev, a 29-year-old German who was born in Moscow, has climbed to No. 30 from the depths of the ATP rankings (No. 1,067 as recently as March 2015) with an audacious southpaw serve-and-volley commitment in the pound-your-groundstrokes world of contemporary tennis.