Novak Djokovic gets hands-on during bizarre Centre Court rain delay

WATCH: After the delay, Novak Djokovic extended his Wimbledon winning streak with a straight-sets win over Pedro Cachin.

File this one "other duties as assigned." Novak Djokovic didn't just assume the role of defending champion on Monday at Wimbledon: He also took on the responsibilities of grounds staff and ball kid in a bizarre scene on Centre Court that followed a brief rain shower in the early afternoon.

To set the stage: After Djokovic wrapped up the first set against Argentina's Pedro Cachin 6-3, rain came to Wimbledon. Centre Court was quickly covered, and the roof was closed. Not an unusual sight, right?

What happened next certainly was. While Iga Swiatek finished off her first-round win against China's Lin Zhu on the also-roofed No. 1 Court, Cachin and Djokovic were still waiting to resume to continue the first match on Centre Court at the tournament.

They waited. And waited. And waited.

As the pause in play dragged on, Centre Court was "taking longer than expected to dry," according to an announcement from chair umpire Renaud Lichtenstein. Veteran referee Gerry Armstrong quickly got involved, as did the All England Club's grounds staff, and soon ... Djokovic himself.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion offered his services to the cause, grabbing a towel to dry a damp spot behind the baseline—a role that often falls to ball people at tournaments.

Earlier in the saga, Djokovic joked with a fan who'd taken it upon himself to wave a towel towards the direction of the court, too.

"Blow, blow!" Djokovic said from the player tunnel after spotting the fan. "We need everybody's help."

But manual labor wasn't enough. Eventually, technology was required, and the grounds staff brought a dryer to the court to finish off the stubbornly-damp spots. Djokovic was a keen observer as a staff member worked, walking alongside him as he blew the court dry.

The decision was then made to wait the rain out completely, and Cachin and Djokovic returned to the court to raucous applause under (comparatively) clearer skies.

The rain delay ultimately clocked nearly an hour and a half, as the roof was reopened once the rain outside had stopped in the interim.

After winning the match 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(3), Djokovic gave reporters a play-by-play of what exactly went down.

"I was communicating quite a lot out of the court with supervisor and referee and chairman of the club came down as well," he said. "They were all a little bit confused because that's something that they never experienced ever since the roof was installed on the Centre Court.

"It normally takes 10 to 20 minutes when the roof is closed for the air-conditioning to do its job and grass to dry and to be ready for play. That was the case with Court 1 actually. We saw that players came back after maybe 15 minutes to Court 1, and they resumed play. But we didn't and we couldn't really.

"Both of us players wanted to come out. We did several times to show to the crowd that we want to play, we want to be there. But it was just too many places on the court which were too slippery and really moist. Touch the grass and your palm is completely wet.

"It was very strange that for more than an hour the situation was not changing at all for better. I think they're tracking right now. I think they will probably answer this question better for you, whether it's the air-conditioning system, it was quite humid, so that didn't help.

"Grass is such a sensitive surface for maintenance. It's definitely very challenging if you have, say, a minute or two more of rain than you need to. ... We were lucky that rain stopped so we could resume play with an open roof."

Did the pause in play just delay the inevitable? Possibly. But one thing's for sure: With 13 days remaining in the Wimbledon fortnight, this might already be the most off-beat story of the Championships.