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London - 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.
Latest results on the first day of Wimbledon at the All England Club on Monday (x denotes seeding):
Men
First round
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) bt Carlos Berlocq (ARG) 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/2)
Richard Gasquet (FRA x18) bt Tobias Kamke (GER) 6-2, 6-2, 6-2
Michael Russell (USA) bt Adrin Menndez (ESP) 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (9/7)
Julien Benneteau (FRA x29) bt Gilles Muller (LUX) 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4)
Fernando Verdasco (ESP x17) bt Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (TPE) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 7-5
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS x26) bt Donald Young (USA) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3
Ryan Sweeting (USA) bt Potito Starace (ITA) 6-2, 2-0 - retired
Women
First round
Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) bt Virginie Razzano (FRA) 6-2, 6-4
Sabine Lisicki (GER x15) bt Petra Martic (CRO) 6-4, 6-2
Andrea Hlavckov (CZE) bt Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) 6-1, 6-2
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x3) bt Magdalna Rybrikov (SVK) 6-3, 6-3
Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Venus Williams (USA) 6-1, 6-3
Anna Tatishvili (GEO) bt Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) 6-4, 6-2
Camila Giorgi (ITA) bt Flavia Pennetta (ITA x16) 6-4, 6-3
Li Na (CHN x11) bt Ksenia Pervak (KAZ) 6-3, 6-1
Sorana Cirstea (ROM) bt Pauline Parmentier (FRA) 6-4, 6-1
Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt Jarmila Gajdosova (AUS) 6-4, 6-3
Arantxa Rus (NED) bt Misaki Doi (JPN) 7-5, 6-3
Samantha Stosur (AUS x5) bt Carla Surez (ESP) 6-1, 6-3
