Unruffled Djokovic surges past Cachin into second round at Wimbledon

Defending champion Novak Djokovic cruised into the second round at Wimbledon on Monday following a straight sets win over the unseeded Argentine Pedro Cachin.

Novak Djokovic began the defence of his Wimbledon men's singles title with a straight sets victory over Pedro Cachin from Argentina. REUTERS - ANDREW COULDRIDGE

Djokovic, 36, won 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 in two hours and 12 minutes to maintain his quest for a record-equalling eighth title on the grass courts in south-west London and a record-extending 24th singles trophy at the four Grand Slam tournament venues in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York.

"It was a solid performance," said the 36-year-old Serb. "I know I can always play better, but at the same time after a long clay court season, coming into Wimbledon without any official match on grass, it was kind of expected I still would probably not be in my 100 percent of the level of my tennis."

Djokovic, who claimed a third French Open last month in Paris, was rarely under pressure during the opening match on Centre Court at the 2023 championships.

Though he was taken to a tiebreaker in the third set, he quickly opened up a 3-0 lead and engineered his way to four match points at 6-2 up. He squandered two of them but converted the next one to put down any thoughts of a comeback.

Elsewhere in the men's draw, the fourth seed Casper Ruud dropped the second set on his way past the Frenchman Laurent Lokoli. 

Ruud, who lost in the French Open final last month to Djokovic, raced through the opener 6-1 on Court One against the world number 198.

Elan

But Lokoli rose with no little flamboyance to the occasion. The 28-year-old claimed the second set as Ruud tried to take it into a tiebreaker.

Lokoli, who has spent most of his career playing in the second tier challenger circuit, showed some impressive grass-court combinations but could not match Ruud's consistency.

"I started great," said Ruud. "Perhaps Laurent was a little nervous ... but I was nervous too as it was my first time playing on this court. He bounced back playing pressure-free tennis and got that second set.

"But I stayed with him and I was able to get the breaks to get through."

Seventh seed Andrey Rublev advanced to the second round so too the 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz.

But the poor form of Felix Auger-Aliassime continued. The world number 12 lost in the opening round for the second consecutive Grand Slam event. Michael Mmoh outwitted the 22-year-old Canadian 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in four hours to register his first main draw victory at Wimbledon.

And in the all-French clash, Corentin Moutet beat the veteran Richard Gasquet in straight sets.