Top seed Novak Djokovic survived a testing Centre Court examination at the hands of close friend and veteran serve-and-volleyer Radek Stepanek to reach the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday.
Djokovic, the 2011 champion, carved out a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5) victory over the 35-year-old Czech who has now lost 11 of the pair's 12 meetings.
But the world No 2 progressed the hard way, squandering a 5-2 lead in the third set tie-break before recovering his composure.
Confident statistics of 18 aces and 54 winners helped lay the foundation for victory and a third round clash with French world No 44 Gilles Simon, who beat Robin Haase in straight sets.
"I should have closed it out in the third set. I had some break point chances and the lead in the tie-break, so I should not have complicated my life in this way, but credit to him," Djokovic said.
Defending champion Andy Murray handed out a tough Wimbledon lesson to Slovenia's Blaz Rola, a former US college champion, coasting to a 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 win over a grasscourt rookie playing just the 10th match of his career.
The British third seed eased to victory in just 84 minutes, hitting seven aces and 27 winners against the world No 92 and goes on to face Spanish 27th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who managed a four-set victory over Jan Hernych of Czech Republic.
"It's his first year on grass so it was tough for him. But he has a good game and he'll keep improving," said Murray.
"I took care of my serve for the majority of the match and I played well. If you can finish matches as quick as possible then that's better in the long run."
Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer failed in his bid to reach an 18th consecutive third round at a Grand Slam when he was knocked out by Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov.
The 32-year-old Ferrer last failed to reach the third round at a major at the 2010 Australian Open, but Kuznetsov, the world No 118, claimed a famous 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the third round for the first time.
Ferrer had come into the tournament still suffering the after-effects of the stomach illness which forced him out of the 's-Hertogenbosch grasscourt warm-up in the Netherlands last week.
"It's a disappointment, but it's not the end of the world," said the Spaniard.
Also heading for the exit was French Open semi-finalist Ernests Gulbis with the 12th seed losing to Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
Stakhovksy, who shocked Roger Federer in the second round in 2013, next faces France's Jeremy Chardy, a winer of Marinko Matosevic in a five-set marathon 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (11/9), 4-6, 7-5.
Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, beat Australia's Bernard Tomic 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 while Bulgarian 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov defeated Australian teenager Luke Saville 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Other seeds to make their way through to the third round on Wednesday unharmed included No 26 Marin Cilic, who had a relatively comfortable win over Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer after dropping the first set in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory, and No 16 Fabio Fognini, another four-set winner over Tim Puetz. No 21 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov and No 20 seed Kevin Anderson also earned four-set victories despite some challenge from Benjamin Becker and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, respectively.
The only other seed besides Ferrer to make his way out was 17th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny, a loser to Taiwanese veteran Jimmy Wang 6-7 (1/7), 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6.
Leonardo Mayer of Argentina also progressed passed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus while No 14 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be left to sweat out a challenge from American Sam Querrey overnight. The two had their match suspended as night fell with Tsonga battling back from two sets down to one for a fifth-set tiebreak locked at 9-9.
The star-studded second-round play on Thursday will also include Rafael Nadal playing Czech Lukas Rosol, Roger Federer meeting Gilles Muller and Stan Wawrinka v Yen-Hsun Lu, while both No 8 seed Milos Raonic (v Jack Sock)and No 10 seed Kei Nishikori (v Denis Kudla) will oppose American qualifiers.
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
