Novak Djokovic Rolls to Straight-Sets Win over Tennys Sandgren at Wimbledon 2018

Novak Djokovic began his quest for a fourth Wimbledon title by beating Tennys Sandgren in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 in his first match at 2018's tournament on Tuesday.

Three-time champion Djokovic hasn't made it past the quarter-finals since 2015, but played a composed game, both on and against serve, on Court 1.

Djokovic looked in the mood early as he broke serve without much fuss in the third game of the opening set. It wasn't quite a deflating blow for Sandgren, who recovered to just about save break points and hold in his next two service games.

The problem was the 26-year-old Tennesseean was finding no joy against the Djokovic serve. Not even a painful slip could prevent Djokovic from holding serve:

Leading 4-3, Djokovic again leaned on a flawless serve to move to within a game of claiming the set. The decisive moment came in the next game when Sandgren's streak of clinging onto his own serve came to an end.

Some clever returns showed Djokovic in complete control of the match, although not everybody was impressed:

Things were similarly scrappy at the start of the second set, with Djokovic nearly blowing a 40-0 edge, before managing to hold for an early lead. The lead soon became a cast-iron grip on the set after Djokovic went up a break in the next game, before yet another win on serve gave him a 3-0 advantage.

At 4-1, Djokovic earned another vital break point ahead of serving out the second set to continue his quick working over of Sandgren:

Djokovic broke again at the start of the third but was made to work a little harder, as Sandgren narrowed the advantage to 3-2 before the former World No. 1 reasserted himself.

One more break point made it 5-2, ahead of Djokovic fittingly taking the set and the match on a serve that had rarely let him down all day.

He can play better, but Djokovic ultimately did what was expected of him by making quick work of a game against an over-matched Wimbledon debutant.