Top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray have stormed into the Wimbledon second round with such speed that All England Club organisers had to pad out the Centre Court schedule.
Murray took out baby-faced Belgian, David Goffin 6-1 6-4 7-5 in a shade over two hours while Djokovic, the 2011 champion and runner-up to the third-seeded Briton in 2013, needed just 88 minutes to dispose of Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev, 6-0 6-1 6-4.
In between, Li Na, the women’s second seed, took only 77 minutes to get past Polish qualifier Paula Kania.
As a result, Centre Court fans in possession of the hottest tickets in town were treated to 10th seeded Dominika Cibulkova facing Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak as a closing gesture.
Murray, bidding to become the first British man to successfully defend a Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936, hit eight aces and 28 winners past world number 104 Goffin.
“I thought it was a very high standard of match, we played some great rallies, and I was glad to finish it in three sets because he was playing very well,” said Murray.
“Sometimes you can win in three and not play well but in terms of the way I struck the ball it was a good start.”
The British star was never broken as he brushed past the 23-year-old Goffin with new coach Amelie Mauresmo and former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal looking on from the Centre Court stands.
Murray, who’s made at least the semi-finals on his last five appearances at the All England Club, goes on to face Slovenia’s Blaz Rola.
Djokovic, playing for the first time since losing the French Open final to Rafael Nadal, won the first 11 games of his Centre Court mis-match against world number 55 Golubev who has now lost all four of his main draw appearances at Wimbledon.
The Serb fired seven aces and 34 winners and next tackles Czech veteran Radek Stepanek for a place in the last 32.
“It was a great start, especially in the first two sets. Credit to Andrey for coming back in the third, but I cannot be happier with the performance,” said Djokovic.
Murray and Djokovic were joined in the second round by Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, who came from a set down to beat Romania’s Victor Hanescu, 6-7 (5/7) 6-1 6-4 6-3.
Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer, twice a quarter-finalist, also made it through by seeing off compatriot Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-0 6-7 (3/7) 6-1 6-1.
Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian 11th seed who won the Queen’s title last week, beat Ryan Harrison of the US, 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 6-2.
But Spanish 18th seed Fernando Verdasco, who took Murray to five sets in the quarter-finals in 2013, was knocked out by Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-2.
