THERE was no mucking about for top seed and world number two Novak Djokovic as his quest for an elusive Olympic gold medal kicked off with a 53-minute rout of doubles specialist Matthew Ebden. It was always tipped to be a heavily one-sided contest given Ebden is not even ranked in singles anymore, and Djokovic just put the foot down to crush the Australian, 6-0 6-1.

Ebden was a late inclusion Andy Murray who pulled out moments before Thursday night’s draw, with Andrea Vavassori and Robin Haase other ‘ins’ for seeds Holger Rune and world number one Jannik Sinner. In a David against Goliath battle, it was Goliath who wasted no time squishing David as Djokovic never looked like losing.

Djokovic won the first 10 games of the match and looked incredibly likely to make it a double bagel on the Australian who had not played a singles match in two years, but much to the relief of anyone associated with the green and gold, the Aussie held serve late in the second set. The crowd roared with excitement after Ebden had put on a show in between the points.

He celebrated little wins, offered his racquet to the crowd, and could see the lighter side of being completely destroyed by the former world number one and 24-time Grand Slam winner. Djokovic only conceded five points on serve and went at a ridiculous 83 per cent as it was. While Ebden who usually relies on his serve, only managed a 37 and 25 per cent success rate – 16 of 46 – against the Serbian.

In the end, Djokovic broke six times from 10 chances won 83 per cent of his service points, 65 per cent of his return points and had almost triple the total points won with 55 to 21. Aside from the one moment where Ebden was finally able to hold his serve, Djokovic was all business and made sure to expel as little energy as possible ahead of what could be a mammoth second round.

Djokovic has the potential to face his rival over the years, Rafael Nadal in what would be the pair’s 60th meeting – Djokovic leads the head-to-head 30-29 – and almost certainly their last. Nadal, who has the gold medal – and a second one in doubles – that has eluded Djokovic, takes on Marton Fucsovics in the first round, though the Spaniard is under an injury cloud uncertain if he will take the court.

Nadal did play doubles alongside current singles world number three and heir apparent Carlos Alcaraz, as the first-time doubles pairing knocked off Argentinian sixth seeds and doubles specialists Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni in a tight straight sets win, 7-6 6-4.

AROUND THE COURTS

There were one-sided singles matches everywhere you looked as teh top seeds quickly dispelled their rivals in what was a rain-affected day for anyone on outside courts. Alcaraz skipped past Lebanon’s Hady Habib 6-3 6-1 in a memorable day for Habib who became the first Lebanese tennis player at the Olympics.

Also through to the next round was fourth seed Daniil Medvedev who had a similar crushing 6-2 6-1 victory over Aussie Rinky Hijikata, while American seventh seed Taylor Fritz won 6-4 6-4 against Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik.