Greg Rusedski crashed out of the Wimbledon championship under a cloud of controversy after his second round match with American Andy Roddick was marred by a foul-mouthed outburst from the Briton.
Roddick won the tight match in straight sets 7-6 7-6 7-5, but the match will be remember more for what happened off the court than on it. Rusedski lost his cool in the ninth game of the third set when a spectator called a return from Roddick out, causing Rusedski to leave the ball and the umpire awarding the point to the American.
The 29-year-old Canadian-born Briton's game collapsed thereafter and Roddick raced on to a meeting with Spain's Tommy Robredo, however that wasn't the end of Rusedski's problems and he left the court in a rage after an umpire over-rule at a vital point of the final set.
Afterwards a triumphant Roddick said; "I've been there before and I definitely know what I've felt like when I've had calls like that before. I just tried to stay down and not pay any attention to things going on on the outside and just try to keep it between the lines. A straight sets victory does not do justice to how tough that match really was."
Earlier in the day, Roger Federer became the first of the leading men's players to book his place in the third round after a straight sets win over Austrian number one Stefan Koubek.
The Swiss fourth seed won 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 on centre court to set up a tricky third round clash with on-form American Mardy Fish, a finalist on grass in a warm-up tournament at Nottingham last week.
After a hesitant start which saw him trailing 5-2 in the first set, Federer suddenly found his stride and from then on, he never looked back as the crowd was and treated the centre court crowd to the full array of his impressive armoury of shots. The Swiss fourth seed breezed through the second and third sets, dropping just two games on his way to an impressive victory.
Meanwhile, Todd Martin used all of his grasscourt experience to get the better of three-times former French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten who he beat 7-6 6-4 6-4.
Martin used his big serve to devastating effect and, rarely allowed the 17th-seeded Kuerten to play his natural, graceful all-court game. After Kuerten managed to lose a second set tiebreak, the match was interrupted briefly by of rain and the Brazilian, who had not played a match on grass for nearly three years, never settled afterwards. Martin now meets German Rainer Schuettler in the third round.
Ivo 'King' Karlovic reached the third round of the men's singles by beating Australian Paul Baccanello. Karlovic shot to prominence after dumping reigning champion Lleyton Hewitt in the opening round. The 6 foot 10' ace saw off his fellow qualifier Baccanello in a hard fought match, winning 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 5-7, 6-2. Victory for Karlovic, ranking 203rd in the world, has now earned him a third round berth against Max Mirnyi.
Filed by Rob Wright
