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Roger Federer caused a stir when he began his quest for a ninth Wimbledon title with a new logo on his chest but everything else looked familiar as he crushed Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 in glorious Center Court sunshine on Monday.

The 36-year-old’s whites were missing the usual swish and the familiar RF emblem was not on his headband after the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s long-term deal with American apparel and equipment company Nike ended in March.

Japan’s casual wear company Uniqlo has signed Federer up in reported $30 million per year deal and might have hoped for a longer debut than the one hour 19 minutes it took it man to demolish Lajovic.

Federer sauntered on to court to a huge ovation and treated his army of fans to a masterclass in a first set that lasted a mere 20 minutes.

Lajovic shook off his early nerves to at least give Federer some practice in the second and third sets, but the Serbian could do no better than last year when he also suffered a straight-sets defeat by the Swiss, that time in the second round.

Federer, contesting his 20th consecutive Wimbledon, is bidding to become only the second player to win nine singles titles on the London lawns after Martina Navratilova.

Federer hit 35 winners and offered up not a single break point as he took his streak to 24 consecutive sets won at the All England Club, having waltzed to the title last year.

In other action, last year’s runner-up Marin Cilic made a solid start with a clinical 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.

Croatian Cilic, who lost last year’s final to Federer, underlined his credentials for another Grand Slam title bid to add to his US Open triumph in 2014.

The lanky 29-year-old third seed served 21 aces and made four service breaks in a match lasting one hour and 45 minutes on Court Two against a young opponent coming back from major knee surgery.

Cilic’s preparations were boosted eight days ago when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final to lift the Queen’s Club trophy, his 18th ATP Tour title.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka returned to the big stage in style, ousting sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-4.

The Swiss, whose ranking had dropped to 225 after a knee injury, fought a stubborn and determined match from the baseline to down the 27-year-old Bulgarian, who appeared beset by first-round nerves.

It was a tough draw for Dimitrov, but it looked like being a straightforward task for the 27-year-old Bulgarian after he wrapped up the first set in less than half an hour.

Wawrinka, 33, is nothing if not tenacious, however, and he fought for every point, becoming more and more comfortable as the match went on.

By contrast Dimitrov became more tense and inconsistent. He failed to convert two set points in the second set and that appeared to knock his confidence, allowing Wawrinka back into the match.

“My goal was to really fight and focus on my game,” Wawrinka said. “Mentally it was a big surprise to fight so well after losing the first set.”

On the women’s side, Serena Williams swapped the skin-tight catsuit that caused a stir at the French Open for a more conservative look as she marked her return to Wimbledon for the first time since becoming a mother with a 7-5, 6-3 first-round win over Arantxa Rus.

The seven-time champion, who missed last year’s tournament while pregnant with her daughter Alexis Olympia, is considered by many as the woman to beat at these championships despite her lowly ranking of 181.

On Monday she proved that she was not back to simply make up the numbers in the women’s field.

Neither a tumble on Court One’s manicured lawn nor falling a break behind in the second set caused much alarm.

As she has done time and time again, Williams got over those blips with the minimum of fuss.

She did need six match points to finish off the Dutchwoman but a netted backhand finally sealed the American’s passage into round two.

“She played unbelievable today, I’ve never seen her play like that before... I didn’t play my best but I’ll get there,” Williams said soon after walking off court.

Also, Caroline Wozniacki crushed a nervous Varvara Lepchenko 6-0, 6-3 when she opened her bid to add Wimbledon to her Australian Open crown.

The Danish second seed strolled though the first set before meeting some resistance from her American opponent at the beginning of the second, finding herself a break of service down before recovering to wrap up the win in 59 minutes.

“It was great just to get in and out. I didn’t have much of a turnaround from Eastbourne,” she said referring to the preparation tournament she won on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ninth-seeded Venus Williams rallied from a set down to beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-1.

American Sloane Stephens was upset in the first round for the second consecutive year, losing 6-1, 6-3 to unseeded Donna Vekic.

It was a quick and disappointing exit at the All England Club for the fourth-seeded Sloane, who reached the final at last month’s French Open. Vekic, ranked No. 55, had lost all five of her previous career matches against top-5 opponents. (Reuters)