Top seed and world No.1 Novak Djokovic moved into the Wimbledon second round on Tuesday with a 6-3 7-5 6-4 win over Germany’s Florian Mayer.
Djokovic, the 2011 champion, goes on to face either Bobby Reynolds or Steve Johnson.
Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer beat Argentina’s Wimbledon debutant Martin Alund 6-1 4-6 7-5 6-2.
Bulgarian 29th seed Grigor Dimitrov, the man at the centre of the spat between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, cruised past Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-1 6-4 6-3.
Argentinian eighth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who missed the French Open through illness, saw off Spain’s Albert Ramos 6-2 7-5 6-1.
Australia’s Bernard Tomic put out American 21st seed Sam Querrey 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 2-6 6-3 despite complaining of dizziness midway through the match and being forced to call for a doctor.
In other matches, Tommy Haas beat Dmitry Tursunov, American James Blake defeated Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker and South African Kevin Anderson thrashed Olivier Rochus.
Djokovic later admitted that Rafael Nadal’s shock Wimbledon exit was a resounding wake-up call after the top-seeded Serb began his campaign for a second All England Club title.
Nadal, the eight-time French Open champion and 12 times a grand slam title winner, suffered his worst loss at a major when he was knocked out in the first round in straight sets by Belgian world No.135 Steve Darcis.
“You cannot take anything or anybody for granted. You have to be grateful for being in this position, work even harder to stay there. That’s the whole point,” said Djokovic.
“The sport is evolving. Everybody is getting better, getting more professional.
“Especially at the opening stages of grand slams, there are a lot of quality players who have nothing to lose really coming on the Centre Court or Court 1, playing in front of 10,000 or more people.”
Djokovic’s last loss in the first round of a major was way back in 2006 at the Australian Open.