East Sussex: Top seed Novak Djokovic passed his first grass court test of the season on Wednesday, defeating Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at Eastbourne.
The Serb is playing a pre-Wimbledon event for the first time since 2010 and will next face the winner from a pair of Americans, either Donald Young or Jared Donaldson.
The three-time Wimbledon champion got onto court as first match after rain washed out Tuesday play -- save one game in the Djokovic match -- leaving organisers with a backlog to get through.
The former world number one claimed his fifth victory in as many attempts against Pospisil, who is now 4-22 lifetime against top 10 opponents.
"That was the first official grass court match for me this year," Djokovic said. "I`m glad that I came here to Eastbourne. I have had a great couple of days of training with good players, different styles of game.
"Yesterday it obviously wasn`t really enjoyable to see the rain falling all day.
"But today we almost played a full match, so I`m glad for that. I felt good on the court, considering it`s the first match.
"I played against an opponent that has a really good game for grass. Serves well, comes to the net, has a good variety.
"It was a really, really solid win. I`m happy with it."
Djokovic, who will be advised by Andre Agassi at Wimbledon, is the second-highest-ranked men`s player to ever compete at the Aegon International behind then-number two Marcelo Rios in 1998.
In the men`s first round, Russian Daniil Medvedev knocked out fifth seed Sam Querrey, beating the American 6-3, 7-5. German Mischa Zverev, seeed sixth, beat Ryan Harrison of the US 6-4, 7-6 (11/9).
On the women`s side, Roland Garros finalist Simona Halep rallied to beat China`s Duan Ying-Ying 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 while Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova -- a 2010 Wimbledon semi-finalist -- defeated Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-0, 6-4.
