- Novak Djokovic overcomes rain delay to beat Pedro Cachin.
Novak Djokovic dried the court with his towel and urged the crowd to “blow” in a farcical rain delay as his Wimbledon title defence began with a win.
Djokovic beat Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 6-3 6-3 7-6 (7-4) on Centre Court.
But after the first set there was no play for 80 minutes, despite the closed roof, with Djokovic dabbing the grass before ground staff used leaf blowers.
“Every time I come out I normally have racquets, not towels – it was fun to do something different,” Djokovic said.
“It was a little bit [of] a strange feeling but hopefully you guys liked it.
“It was definitely frustrating for all the crowd waiting for us to come out on court. We both wanted to play but the conditions were not great and still slippery.
“Once the roof was open it was a different story and after five or 10 minutes we were able to play.”
Djokovic, aiming to secure his eighth Wimbledon title and match Roger Federer’s record for a male player, will now play Australia’s Jordan Thompson, ranked 70th in the world, following his five-set win over American Brandon Nakashima, 55th in the world.
Amusing scenes as Djokovic tries to dry the court
Djokovic, who has not lost on Centre Court since being beaten by Andy Murray in the 2013 final, was a break up in the first set, but complained the surface was getting slippery with drops of rain falling.
He wrapped up the set just before a shower at 14:20 BST, with the roof then fully closed 15 minutes later.
But in that time enough water had got on to the court before the covers came on to cause a lengthy delay.
With the covers off and the roof still closed, the players inspected the surface at 14:55, but were not happy with it and the crowd were told by the umpire that “the court is taking longer than expected to dry”.
There followed some amusing scenes when Djokovic appeared with a towel, urged the 15,000-strong crowd to “blow” at the same time to dry the court, with him then wiping the grass himself.
After that, three members of ground staff, each armed with a leaf blower, also tried to dry the surface, while the fans began to get restless with a half-hearted slow hand clap and then a Mexican wave.
With the leaf blowers and the towel not doing enough, the roof was reopened at 15:40 in an attempt to dry the grass naturally with the rain having stopped.
It did the job and play resumed just before 15:50 with Djokovic able to take control with two breaks in the second set against his opponent, who battled hard but was outclassed.
If he keeps winning, Djokovic will not have to play a top-30 ranked opponent until the fourth round at the earliest.
Returning Rublev ‘happy to be back’
Russia’s seventh seed Andrey Rublev is a potential opponent for Djokovic in the quarter-finals and he began his campaign with a 6-3 7-5 6-4 success over Australia’s Max Purcell.
Rublev, unable to play at Wimbledon in 2022 because of the ban handed out to Russian and Belarusian players after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was only in trouble in the second set at 5-2 down before he won five games in a row in a 6-3 7-5 6-4 victory.
“I feel really happy to be back, because I haven’t played much Wimbledon – I was injured or it was the pandemic or then they ban us,” said Rublev.
“It feels really special to play at one of the best tournaments and to get a win was a nice moment.”
Asked if he felt Wimbledon made a mistake by forcing the ban on Russian players last year, Rublev, who wrote ‘No War Please’ on a camera lens after advancing to the final at the Dubai Championships in February 2022, replied: “We were talking and I think we could find the solution.
“If we really want to help or do what is better for tennis and for the people, obviously there were better options. Not just to ban, because in the end, [there] was no difference.
“But it is what it is. Now we are here, and I’m really happy to be back and to compete.”
Norwegian fourth seed Casper Ruud, who lost to Djokovic in last month’s French Open final, was tested by Laurent Lokoli of France before eventually going through in four sets on Court One.
Ruud will play Great Britain’s Liam Broady in the second round.
Elsewhere, there were successes for 14th seed Lorenzo Musetti and 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz against Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru and Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain respectively.
But there was a first-round exit for Canadian 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who lost in four sets to American Michael Mmoh.
The first three sets all went to tie-breaks before Mmoh, ranked 119th in the world and whose only previous singles appearance at Wimbledon was a first-round loss in 2018, closed out a 7-6 6-7 7-6 6-4 victory.
Number eight seed Jannik Sinner from Italy completed his victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo on Centre Court at 21:20 BST, but ninth seed Taylor Fritz was one of the players forced off by bad light – the American is 3-2 up on serve in the final set against Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka wrapped up a 7-5 7-5 6-4 win over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
