Novak Djokovic raced to a 6-0, 3-0 lead, then held firm the rest of the way as he opened his bid for a third straight Wimbledon title and fifth straight Grand Slam championship with a straight-sets win over Britain's James Ward on Monday.
In keeping with tradition, Djokovic played the first match on Centre Court as the men's defending champion, and he came through 6-0, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in just over two hours to extend his Grand Slam winning streak to 29 matches.
Djokovic holds all four Grand Slam titles. Having won the Australian Open and French Open, he's also seeking to become the first man to capture the first three legs of a calendar-year Grand Slam since Rod laver swept all four majors in 1969.
Djokovic looked right back at home Monday as he ran off the first nine games against Ward, ranked 177th in the world and granted a wild-card entry into the grass-court Grand Slam.
When Ward finally won a game, hitting a service winner to make it 3-1 in the second set, the Briton threw up his arm in mock triumph and basked in a loud ovation from the home crowd. Ward broke in the next game and the two players went to a tiebreaker, which Djokovic dominated to reassert control.
Former Wimbledon women's runner-up Sabine lisicki advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Shelby Rogers on the opening day at the All England Club.
lisicki, the German who lost to Marion Bartoli in the 2013 final, took exactly one hour to beat the 62nd-ranked American.
Five-time champion Venus Williams won her opening match at Wimbledon for the 17th time when she beat Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Vekic, who was 1 year old when Williams made her Wimbledon debut in 1997, had two set points in the first set serving at 6-5 but blew them both on errors. Williams ran through the tiebreaker.
In the second set, Vekic had a break chance for 5-3, but another unforced error squandered it.
Williams broke for 5-4 and served out in her 19th Wimbledon, a record among active players.
Former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic blamed an injured right wrist for causing her problems during a surprising 6-2, 7-5 loss in Wimbledon's first round against a qualifier ranked 223rd and making her Grand Slam debut.
Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion who was seeded 23rd at the All England Club, was beaten by 21-year-old Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday.
French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was extended to three sets before winning her first-round match at Wimbledon on Monday.
The second-seeded Spaniard beat Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Centre Court.
The match was effectively decided in the third game of the final set, which lasted more than 10 minutes and included five deuces and six break points. The game ended with Muguruza breaking for a 2-1 lead when Giorgi hit a forehand into the net.
The players stayed on serve the rest of the way, with Muguruza serving out the match at love. Muguruza lost in the last year's Wimbledon final to Serena Williams.
Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan ended a five-match losing streak on tour when he outlasted 20th-seeded Kevin Anderson, South African player 4-6, 6-7 (13), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-3 after more than 3 1/2 hours in the first round of Wimbledon on Monday.