Top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic has joined six-time champion Roger Federer in the second round at Wimbledon after both enjoyed comfortable wins over Spanish opponents on Monday.
Djokovic had few problems in accounting for Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 6-3 6-1 while third seed Federer needed just 79 minutes to crush Albert Ramos 6-1 6-1 6-1.
The highest-seeded player to fall on the opening day was No.6 Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up from the Czech Republic while 11th seeded American John Isner was also sent packing after failing to repeat his five-set heroics.
Argentinian David Nalbandian, in his first match since he was disqualified in the final at Queen’s Club last week for kicking an advertising board and injuring a line judge, was also a casualty.
Djokovic, playing for the first time since his French Open final defeat to Rafael Nadal, was far too classy for Ferrero and will face either America’s Ryan Harrison or Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan for a place in the last 32.
The 25-year-old, playing in a 31st successive Grand Slam tournament, opted to nurse his wounds by holidaying in Scotland rather than playing a grass court warm-up event after losing to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final.
But it didn’t take long for the Serb to get back into his groove and he emphatically wrapped up the match in 98 minutes.
Federer was equally untroubled as he started his bid to equal Pete Sampras’s record of seven Wimbledon titles.
The Swiss fired down nine aces in his straightforward win over left-hander Ramos, the world No.43 who has never won a match on grass.
“I played a good match against a guy who doesn’t have much experience on grass courts,” said Federer, who will face colourful Italian Fabio Fognini in the second round.
“It was a clean match, I could save energy and it gives you confidence when you close out a match that easily.”
Federer, without a Grand Slam title since the 2010 Australian Open, has fallen in the quarter-finals in the last two years, losing from two sets to love up for the first time in his career in 2011 when he went down to France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Berdych lost in three straight tiebreakers to 87th-ranked Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who served 30 aces in winning 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) for his first victory at a Grand Slam since the 2011 US Open.
Isner went five sets at Wimbledon again, but lost this time to 73rd-ranked Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4 6-7 (7-5) 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.
Isner is best known for winning the longest match in tennis history, an 11-hour and five minute marathon that ended 70-68 in the fifth set against Nicolas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010.
It was a poor day for the Americans, with James Blake going down 6-7 (7-4) 7-5 6-0 6-4 to Germany’s Benjamin Becker and Donald Young ousted by Russian 26th seed Mikhail Youzhny 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat 2002 runner-up David Nalbandian 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
“I think everybody understood (it) wasn’t a good thing that I did, but (I) was very unlucky, as well,” Nalbandian said of the Queen’s final controversy.
