WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - Novak Djokovic brought some extra sports equipment to Wimbledon for the opening match at Centre Court on Monday: a golf club.

And once he started playing tennis, the tournament's defending champion and top-seeded man probably wished he could take a mulligan.

As something of an inside joke with a sponsor, Djokovic pulled a kid's golf club out of his racket bag and put it on the sideline when he arrived to face 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero at the grass-court Grand Slam's main stadium. Then, after a bit of a slow and nervous beginning that included an early break, Djokovic righted himself and beat Ferrero 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the second round at the All England Club.

``It was a little funny thing,'' said Djokovic, whose racket maker gave him a bag that has posts to make it stand like a golf bag. ``Being creative, that's all. But fans corrected me right away. They said, `This is not a golf course.' I said, `OK.'''

Coming off a loss to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final two weeks ago that ended the Serb's 27-match winning streak at major tournaments, Djokovic started out shakily against Ferrero, who was briefly ranked No. 1 nine years ago and is now 38th.

Serving at 30-love in the third game, Djokovic hit a bad overhead into the net, eliciting some murmuring in the stands, as if fans turned to neighbors to say, ``See? Even he does that!'' Moments later, Djokovic had the whole court open but pushed a forehand long for another unforced error to set up a break point, drawing more murmuring. He twirled his racket and fiddled with the strings, a bemused look on his face.

Djokovic came up with a service winner to get to deuce, but there soon would be more mistakes, including a double-fault, and a total of four break points. The last, set up by Djokovic's forehand into the net, was converted by Ferrero with a forehand winner. The shot caught Djokovic leaning the wrong way behind the baseline, and as he dropped behind 2-1, he slipped and nearly did an awkward split.

``Can happen like this, `cause you are not in the rhythm of the match, starting the tournament,'' Ferrero observed later. ``Today, I take the break very early. But he (broke) me again, very fast.''

Indeed, he did.

Djokovic broke right away to 2-all, thanks in part to three perfect forehand winners, and again to 5-3, before serving out the set, closing it with a 92 mph second-serve ace.

And that, pretty much, was that.

Djokovic moved onto a second-round match against 48th-ranked Ryan Harrison of Bradenton, Fla., a 20-year-old who beat Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Djokovic has won four of the past six Grand Slam tournaments to move atop the rankings and elbow his way into what had been a two-men-at-the-top stretch of dominance by currently No. 2-ranked Nadal and No. 3 Roger Federer.

That trio has combined to win 28 of the past 29 major titles.

``There is not anymore, I think, advantages in ... my favor, Rafa's, Roger's, whenever we are playing each other on any surface,'' Djokovic said. ``We're all kind of equal, in a way. I think we have equal, 50-50, chances to win.''

With Djokovic getting the honor, as defending champion, of playing first on Centre Court, six-time Wimbledon champion Federer was shifted over to Court 1 on Monday and beat 43rd-ranked Albert Ramos of Spain 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

Nadal, a two-time title winner at the All England Club, is scheduled to face 80th-ranked Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil on Centre Court on Tuesday.

While Nadal has to put in some work on court, Djokovic can rest up.

Or maybe play 18 holes.

``There are a lot of golf courses here. Royal Wimbledon Golf Course is really nice. We do get to play on off days,'' Djokovic said. ``Not really good at it, but enjoying the walk in the park.''

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