Djokovic beat Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 6-3 6-3 7-6 (7-4) on Centre Court.

But after the first set there was no play for 80 minutes, despite the closed roof, with Djokovic dabbing the grass before ground staff used leaf blowers.

“Every time I come out I normally have racquets, not towels – it was fun to do something different,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic, aiming to secure his eighth Wimbledon title and match Roger Federer’s record for a male player, will now play Australia’s Jordan Thompson, ranked 70th in the world, following his five-set win over American Brandon Nakashima, 55th in the world.Russia’s seventh seed Andrey Rublev is a potential opponent for Djokovic in the quarter-finals and he began his campaign with a 6-3 7-5 6-4 success over Australia’s Max Purcell.Norwegian fourth seed Casper Ruud, who lost to Djokovic in last month’s French Open final, was tested by Laurent Lokoli of France before eventually going through in four sets on Court One.

Ruud will play Great Britain’s Liam Broady in the second round.

Elsewhere, there were successes for 14th seed Lorenzo Musetti and 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz against Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru and Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain respectively.

But there was a first-round exit for Canadian 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who lost in four sets to American Michael Mmoh.

The first three sets all went to tie-breaks before Mmoh, ranked 119th in the world and whose only previous singles appearance at Wimbledon was a first-round loss in 2018, closed out a 7-6 6-7 7-6 6-4 victory.

Number eight seed Jannik Sinner from Italy completed his victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo on Centre Court at 21:20 BST, but ninth seed Taylor Fritz was one of the players forced off by bad light – the American is 3-2 up on serve in the final set against Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka wrapped up a 7-5 7-5 6-4 win over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.