Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer cruise into second round of Wimbledon

The number-one seed from Kiel in northern Germany took just under one-and-a-half hours to defeat the American qualifier and set up a second-round match with former semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.

Meanwhile Federer, who is many people’s favourite to claim the title in a fortnight’s time, was striking the ball crisply and holding serve comfortably before Dolgopolov threw in the towel.

Federer followed up his Australian Open victory with titles in Indian Wells and Miami, then skipped the entire claycourt season to focus on his preparations for SW19.

Although he is enjoying a renaissance at the moment, Wimbledon has always been bittersweet for Nadal.

After several years of not being the favourite, Roger Federer has suddenly catapulted back to being the outright favoured player to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title this year.

Raonic had upset Federer during last year’s semi-final before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray in the championship round.

“I know Kyle pretty well”, said Ward.

It will be a big ask for Dolgopolov as fatigue and injury may play a factor if he goes to four or five sets further stacking the odds against the Ukrainian. Of course you don’t want a match to end up this way but I heard Klizan had issues before walking onto the court. You hope that they would give up their spot for somebody else, even though they deserve to be in there, but fitness not allowing them. I tried to make the best decisions along with my team to give myself the best chance to feel good on Monday.

It was the kind of trouble-free first round Djokovic would have been hoping for after the most turbulent period of his career, the 12-time major victor losing in the Australian Open second round and the French Open quarter-finals. But his first match this year on grass was a disappointing loss in the opening round at Queen’s.

This is probably the most hard to call, among all the Round 1 matches in the men’s singles draw at the Wimbledon this year. The fourth-ranked Serb starts his bid to regain the All England Club crown with a first-round match against world number 47 Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

– World number 869 Ward is making only his second grand slam appearance.

“I’ve been watching Wimbledon (on TV) for 42 years, and it’s been on my bucket list to come here”, Sherratt said.

She opens play on Centre Court in the absence of defending champion Serena Williams, who is awaiting the birth of her first child, but few see Kerber as a title contender. Opponent Irina Falconi of the United States is ranked 247 in the world and has lost all of her four previous first round matches at the All England Club.