World No. 46 Andreas Seppi beat his fellow Italian, qualifier Stephane Bohli, 6-1 7-5 to set up a second-round clash with either Serbian eighth seed Viktor Troicki or Austria's Jurgen Melzer.
"I played very badly, but I won thanks to my fighting spirit, " Djokovic said after struggling to beat Italy's world No. 25 Andreas Seppi 4-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 6-3 in more than four hours on Sunday.