London: Novak Djokovic lived up to his top billing at Wimbledon when he combined brutal force with deft touches to reach the second round in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 destruction of Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev on Monday.
The 2011 champion, elevated to top seed despite his world number two ranking, appeared to be heading for a rarely-seen "triple bagel" in men's tennis when he led 6-0, 5-0 against his hapless opponent.
Golubev eventually registered on the Centre Court scoreboard after 44 minutes, drawing a warm round of applause from the crowd who were eager to witness a closer contest.
Djokovic, however, was in no mood to oblige and took just 88 minutes to book a second-round showdown with wily Czech campaigner Radek Stepanek.
"It was a great start, especially the first two sets and I could not be happier with the performance," said the Serb, who has not won a grand slam tournament since the 2013 Australian Open.
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