Wimbledon: Djokovic breezes past Cachin to maintain astonishing winning streak on Centre Court

Novak Djokovic overcame the challenge of Argentinian Pedro Cachin with very little trouble, winning 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to advance to the second round of Wimbledon and bring his winning streak on the hallowed turf of Centre Court to 40 straight matches. He will play Jordan Thompson of Australia in the second round.

The match was disrupted for more than an hour after the first set, with rain forcing the closure of the roof and the court surface not drying sufficiently due to humidity on the players’ return.

This led to a somewhat farcical situation in which the seven-time champion himself was wiping down the court surface with a towel in an attempt to restart a match that was otherwise posing little difficulties for Djokovic, lasting only two hours and twelve minutes in total.

Despite falling a break behind early in the first set, Djokovic – seeded second behind Carlos Alcaraz at this year’s Championships – broke straight back before taking the opening set.

Following the rain delay, the Serb picked up where he left off against what was a commendable effort from the Argentine. The second set went the same way as the first, Djokovic again breaking twice but this time without reply.

By the third and final set, Cachin had become comfortable enough on court to force Djokovic to a tiebreak, both players backing up their serves well.

Despite the enthusiastic support from the Centre Court crowd for the Argentine, the tiebreak had an air of inevitability about it as Djokovic once again showed his masterful form in breakers to take the match in comfortable fashion.

“This court is the holy grail, the temple of tennis,” Djokovic said during his on-court interview.

“It doesn’t get much better than Wimbledon really… Each year I come back and connect with that boy who was dreaming in Serbia to win the biggest tournament in the world.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to be here.”

Djokovic’s 2023 Wimbledon campaign is officially off and running.

London (Grand Slam), other first-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, most recent results first):

• Cameron Norrie vs. Tomas Machac
• Ryan Peniston vs. Andy Murray
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jeremy Chardy
• Dominic Thiem vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Maxime Cressy vs. Laslo Djere
• Ben Shelton vs. Taro Daniel
• Jiri Vesely vs. Sebastian Korda
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Hamad Medjedovic
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Thiago Monteiro
• Shintaro Mochizuki vs. Tommy Paul
• Milos Raonic vs. Dennis Novak
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Sebastian Ofner
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Nuno Borges
• Marton Fucsovics vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Marcos Giron vs. Hugo Dellien
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Alexander Shevchenko
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Arthur Fery
• George Loffhagen vs. Holger Rune
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Arthur Fils
• Sho Shimabukuro vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Ilya Ivashka vs. Federico Coria
• Dominic Stricker vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Yibing Wu
• Kimmer Coppejans vs. Alex De Minaur
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Marc-Andrea Huesler vs. Yosuke Watanuki
• Alexander Zverev vs. Gijs Brouwer
• Marco Cecchinato vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Jason Kubler vs. Ugo Humbert
• Alexandre Muller vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Quentin Halys vs. Daniel Evans
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Bernabe Zapata Miralles
• Jannik Sinner vs. Juan Manuel Cerundolo
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Diego Schwartzman
• Alexander Bublik vs. Mackenzie McDonald
• Lloyd Harris vs. Gregoire Barrere
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Radu Albot
• Roman Safiullin vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Benjamin Bonzi vs. Harold Mayot
• Borna Coric vs. Guido Pella
• Yannick Hanfmann vs. Taylor Fritz
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Daniel Elahi Galan
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Dominik Koepfer vs. Oscar Otte
• Mikael Ymer vs. Alex Molcan
• Jan Choinski vs. Dusan Lajovic: monday
• Laurent Lokoli vs. Casper Ruud: monday
• John Isner vs. Jaume Munar: monday
• J.J. Wolf vs. Enzo Couacaud: monday
• Liam Broady vs. Constant Lestienne: monday
• David Goffin vs. Fabian Marozsan: monday
• Corentin Moutet vs. Richard Gasquet: monday
• Michael Mmoh vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime: monday
• Hubert Hurkacz (17) beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas: 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
• Maximilian Marterer beat Borna Gojo: 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Max Purcell: 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
• Jordan Thompson beat Brandon Nakashima: 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Lorenzo Musetti (14) beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 6-3, 6-1, 7-5
• Tomas Barrios Vera (Q) beat Sebastian Baez: 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Aslan Karatsev beat Luca Van Assche: 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4