Murray, who secured his historic title last year to become the first home men's singles champion at the All England Club for 77 years, received a standing ovation when he returned to the Centre Court and picked up where he left off, breaking Goffin four times in the match.

"Yeah, to come to the court and get that reception, yeah, it was very nice to come out," he said.

"I think the crowd was pretty much full from the start.

"It was great.

"Yeah, enjoyed it for the walk to the chair.

"Then when I sat down, it was time to get on with business."

Murray will now face Slovakian Blaž Rola in the second round.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the man Murray beat to take last year's title, also began the championships on top form, beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.

Novak Djokovic made it into the second round of the men's singles at Wimbledon with a straight-sets win ©AFP/Getty Images


Djokovic, in his first competitive match since losing to Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, was leading by two sets after 45 minutes and a break in the penultimate game was all he needed to make it to the second round, where he will face Radek Štěpánek of the Czech Republic.

"It's never easy, you can never underestimate any opponent especially with no matches under your belt coming into Wimbledon," Djokovic said.

"I started extremely well; serving great and just played a very good game for the first match."

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov and Czech Tomáš Berdych also both eased into the second round.

Meanwhile in the women's games, second seed Li Na of China came back from an early 5-3 scare at the hands of Poland's Paula Kania to defeat her challenger and take a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

Li Na came back from a set down to defeat Paula Kania ©AFP/Getty Images


Former US Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia suffered a shock early exit after losing 6-3 6-4 to Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.

"I mean, in some ways it's good and in some ways it sucks, because you're done, you wait another four or five weeks till you get to play again," Stosur said.

Elsewhere, there was joy for Belarusian former world number one Victoria Azarenka, who won her first match since January's Australian Open by beating Croatia's Mirjana Lučić-Baroni 6-3, 7-5, while five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams of the US secured her first victory at the tournament for three years when she disposed of Spain's María Teresa Torró Flor 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

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