Andy Roddick began his quest to win a hat-trick of Stella Artois titles by outclassing Australian wildcard Mark Philippoussis 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round on Wednesday.
The match was expected to be a fierce battle of wills between the two men who have finished runners-up to Swiss Roger Federer at Wimbledon over the past two years.
But Roddick, whose only two defeats on the fast surface since 2003 have been by Federer, proved to be in a different league.
Philippoussis kept pace with the American until 2-2 in the first set when second seed Roddick left him flat-footed behind the baseline with a series of scorching serves and stinging returns to win four games on the trot and the set in 24 minutes.
The Australian, winner here in 1997 but needing an invite to play this year because his ranking has slipped to 189th in the world, tried to make it a contest in the second set by toning down his erratic range of shots.
THE INEVITABLE
The move only delayed the inevitable. Roddick followed up a break that gave him a 4-3 lead by unleashing a 151 mph delivery, his eighth ace, in the next game to make his intentions clear.
Philippoussis, clearly lacking match practice after three months on the sidelines with an ankle injury before arriving in London, bowed out after 57 minutes when he tamely stroked a backhand wide on the American's second match point.
Roddick's win improved his grasscourt record to 22-2 since 2003.
Croatian fifth seed Mario Ancic, the last player to beat world number one Federer on grass in the first round at Wimbledon in 2002, began his grasscourt season by defeating Czech Jan Hernych 6-4, 6-4.
The 2004 Wimbledon semi-finalist will play Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the third round.
With three Britons in action on Wednesday, Jamie Delgado become the first casualty when he was overwhelmed 6-4, 6-1 by Gasquet.
Greg Rusedski and Andrew Murray will hope to keep local interest alive when they face Dmitry Tursunov and Taylor Dent respectively.