Wimbledon, England – Reigning champion Novak Djokovic and six-time titlist Roger Federer were a pair of easy opening-round winners Monday at The Championships, Wimbledon.
The world No. 1 star Djokovic throttled former top-ranked Spaniard and two- time Wimbledon quarterfinalist Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 on the famed grass on Centre Court at the All England Club. The 32-year-old Ferrero is also a former French Open champ and two-time Grand Slam runner-up.
The 25-year-old Djokovic is now 28-1 over his last five majors and 40-2 over his last seven Grand Slams.
Djokovic reached his first-ever Wimbledon final and captured his first-ever title here with a victory over Rafael Nadal a year ago. Djokovic and Nadal have met in the last four Grand Slam finals, with the Serb winning three of them. Nadal, however, beat Djokovic in the French Open finale three weeks ago.
The third-seeded former No. 1 great Federer dismantled helpless Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour, 19 minutes on Court 1.
"I thought I played a pretty good match," a modest Federer said after advancing with the easiest opening-round win he's ever had at Wimbledon.
The 30-year-old Federer is now 60-7 lifetime at Wimbledon, where, in addition to his six titles, he was also the runner-up to Nadal in 2008 in what many considered to be the greatest tennis match of all-time.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion Federer lost in the quarterfinals here the last two years and hasn't captured major title since the 2010 Australian Open.
Federer's second-round opponent will be Italian Fabio Fognini.
Meanwhile, eighth-seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic moved on in surprisingly easy fashion with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over former top-five star and 2002 Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian of Argentina.
Thirteenth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon was leading fellow Frenchman Paul- Henri Mathieu 6-3, 5-4 when the oft-injured Mathieu retired on Day 1.
In other first-round action involving seeds, No. 17 Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco doused Taiwan's Jimmy Wang, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-5; No. 18 Frenchman Richard Gasquet drubbed German Tobias Kamke 6-2, 6-2, 6-2; Serbian Viktor Troicki drove out No. 24 Spaniard Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 2-6, 8-6; No. 26 Russian Mikhail Youzhny overcame American Donald Young 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3; No. 28 Czech Radek Stepanek got past Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-1, 1-0, retired; and No. 29 Frenchman Julien Benneteau topped Luxembourg's Gilles Muller 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
The 2012 Wimbledon champ will earn $1.79 million.
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