Top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the Wimbledon second round on Monday with a 6-3 6-3 6-1 win over Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Djokovic, playing for the first time since his French Open final defeat to Rafael Nadal, will face either America’s Ryan Harrison or Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan for a place in the last 32.

The world No.1 had seen his hopes of becoming just the third man to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once shattered by his defeat at the hands of Nadal in Paris.

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.

And he looked rusty early on Monday as he opened proceedings on Centre Court, dropping serve to trail the 32-year-old Ferrero, a former world No.1 and ex-French Open champion, 2-1.

But the Serb broke back immediately for 2-2 and went to 5-3 when Ferrero hit a forehand long.

An ace gave Djokovic the first set 6-3 before he dominated the second set by the same score as Ferrero, a quarter-finalist in 2007 and 2009, wilted.

Another break in the second game of the third set allowed the Serb to put the Spaniard further onto the defensive and he edged closer to victory with another break to lead 4-0.

Ferrero stopped the rot at 5-1, but another ace gave Djokovic the match in the next game after just 98 minutes on court.