Novak Djokovic
Tennis - French Open Mens Singles Quarterfinal match - Roland Garros - Novak Djokovic of Serbia vs Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic - Paris, France - 02/06/16. Novak Djokovic celebrates with a court boy. Reuters/Benoit Tessier

Former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic put the tennis world on notice Tuesday with a dominating 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory over American Donald Young in the first round of the 2018 Australian Open. Djokovic was playing his first competitive game since Wimbledon after missing the second half of 2017 with an elbow injury.

After the win, Djokovic exulted in relief. "It felt great to be back on the court and compete again. It's been a while. Obviously, you don't know how you're going to start off. The first two sets went extremely well, considering that I haven't played for six months. The third was up and down a little bit, but in general, it was a great performance," the former six-time Australian Open champion said.

According to several onlookers, Djokovic introduced a new service action designed to take pressure off his troublesome elbow. Djokovic dropped his serve just once while putting away Donald in quick time. Prior to the new ATP season, Djokovic added Radek Stepanek to his coaching staff spearheaded by American great Andre Agassi.

"Second serve was very, very good. First serve was kind of up and down. When you come back after a long time and you play (your) first match, obviously all the things are a bit exaggerated -- whatever is not working well.

"All in all, I'm quite pleased. I know that it's going to take a little bit of time for me to kind of work my way in and get used to the specific changes that I've made in my service motion. It wasn't ideal, but it was still good. I'm looking forward to work on it more. I hope to improve in this aspect," Djokovic added, via ESPN.

Novak Djokovic, who is seeded 14th, faces a tougher path to the final than top seeds Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. However, the Serb has hoisted six trophies at Melbourne Park and will always be a threat to go the distance. Djokovic will now face France's World No. 39 Gael Monfils in the second round on Thursday.