Wimbledon surprise pair Jonny Marray and Freddie Nielsen back in form

The wild card pair’s victory at the All England Club was the most surprising title of the year and should earn them a place at the end-of-season Barclays ATP World  Tour Finals in London  in November.

Marray had not won a match since, including defeats with Nielsen in the first round of tournaments in Cincinnati and Winston Salem, but the pair found their Grand Slam form  again to beat Italians  Fabio Fognini and Flavio Cipolla 7-5, 6-3.

British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins also made it through to the second round yesterday, defeating Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic and Estonian Jurgen Zopp 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.

In the men’s singles, meanwhile, Novak Djokovic began the defence of his US Open title with a crushing 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The second seed was clearly in no mood to hang around as he needed only an hour and 13 minutes to blow away Lorenzi, who also won just two games when the pair met in the first round of the Australian Open this year.

Djokovic went on to win the title in Melbourne and he will hope the start is a good omen as he goes for his sixth grand slam title.

Bizarrely, the only game Lorenzi, ranked 69th, won out of the first 13 was the very first of the match on the Djokovic serve.

But Djokovic did not allow his opponent another game until the start of the third set, and then reeled  off another six games to clinch victory.