by Our Sports Desk

REIGNING Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic secured his safe passage to the second round of the Grand Slam tournament yesterday, despite a less than fluent performance.

It was the Serbian’s first competitive match since his shock defeat to Stan Wawrinka in the French Open final less than a month ago.

On a scorching Centre Court Djokovic sealed a confident 6-4 6-4 6-4 win against Philipp Kohlschreiber. The German’s slice backhand caused all sorts of problems for the world number one who had three break points in the seventh game of the first set but was unable to capitalise.

Djokovic was more clinical throughout and Kohlschreiber’s serve continued to let him down under pressure.

Five-time champion and women’s number one Serena Williams also took a while to get going but preserved her unbeaten

Wimbledon first-round record by beating 20-year-old Margarita Gasparyan, a Russian making her Wimbledon debut, 6-4 6-1.
The US player stays on course to scoop an impressive four majors in the same year, a feat last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988.

For Great Britain, Liam Broady produced a remarkable fightback in a thrilling five-set victory over Marinko Matosevic and was congratulated by 2013 champion Andy Murray who labelled Broady’s triumph a “big comeback win” on Twitter.

But Great Britain’s Johanna Konta failed to overturn fourth seed Maria Sharapova, losing 6-2 6-2 to the Russian.