Novak Djokovic too good for Pedro Cachin as he reaches second round at Wimbledon after rain delay

Novak Djokovic started his bid for a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title with a solid first-round win over Pedro Cachin.

Djokovic was broken early by the world No. 68 but quickly recovered and always looked in control as he won 6-3 6-3 7-6(5).

Djokovic tried to speed up the process by mopping the grass with his towel, before leafblowers were brought out to help.

Eventually the match resumed with the roof open again and Djokovic sealed his place in the second round, where he faces Brandon Nakashima.

“This is the holy grail, the temple of tennis, this court is really something special,” said Djokovic afterwards.

“Every time I come out I normally come out with racquets, not with towels, but it was fun to do something different, a bit of a strange feeling, but hopefully you guys liked it.”

With Djokovic having not played competitively since winning the French Open in early June, Cachin’s best hope of causing an upset might have been to strike early.

He did so in the third game as he broke serve to move 2-1 ahead.

However, Djokovic levelled immediately and then broke again in the eighth game after getting to 0-40 on Cachin’s serve.

Djokovic served out the set to move ahead just before play was suspended due to rain.

With the roof over Centre Court and the rain only falling lightly it didn’t look like a long break was in store.

The players returned after around 25 minutes when the roof had closed, but they didn’t resume playing as areas on the court were too slippery.

Djokovic tried to help dry them up before groundstaff came out with leafblowers. Eventually it was opening the roof again that helped solve the issue.

Djokovic was not knocked off course by the 90-minute delay and broke in the first game of the second set when play resumed.

He followed up with two love holds and then broke again to close out the set.

The third set was a far more competitive affair as Cachin stayed with Djokovic and showed off his hitting to take it to a tie-break.

But it was Djokovic who showed his quality in the breaker to seal the win.

Fourth seed Casper Ruud won 6-1 5-7 6-4 6-3 against Laurent Lokoli while 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime lost in four sets to Matthew Mmoh.

Former semi-finalist Hubert Hurkacz opened with a 6-1 6-4 6-4 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Jannick Sinner beat Juan Cerundolo 6-2 6-2 6-2, while bad light meant a number of matches will be concluded on Tuesday, including those featuring Taylor Fritz, who was in his decider against Yannick Hanfmann, and Dan Evans, who was two sets down against unseeded Frenchman Quentin Halys.

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