Wimbledon Day 2 - Seeds on Song As Big Names Progress

Twelve months ago it felt strange watching the second week of Wimbledon without seeing the seven time champion Roger Federer.

When the Swiss lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round last year it brought an end his unprecedented run of 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarter finals and was his earliest defeat at the Championships since a first round defeat back in 2002.  



There was no repeat of Federer's shock exit last year

As refreshing and entertaining as it was to see Stakhovsky serve-volley and approach the net on every point, there was a sense of disappointment that Federer wouldn’t feature beyond the second round.

However a repeat of that this year looks extremely unlikely, especially if Federer’s first round demolition of Italian Paolo Lorenzi is anything to go by. Of course there will be tougher tasks ahead for the Swiss , but on this performance alone he looked back to his fluent best and dropped just five games on his way to a 6-1 6-1 6-3 in just I hour 33 minutes.

A lot has been made about Federer’s potential semi-final with Rafael Nadal which could see the pair face each other for the first time on grass since their memorable final at SW19 back in 2008.

But Nadal hasn’t been past the second round at the All England Club since he reached the final back in 2011. The Spaniard faced  much a tougher first round when he came up against Slovak Martin Klizan who managed to clinch the first set before Nadal finally prevailed 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3.

Nadal will now face another dangerous opponent in the Czech Lukas Rosol, the man who knocked him out at the same stage two years ago.

Elsewhere Jo-Wilfred Tsonga finished off his five set marathon to beat Jurgen Melzer in a match which had been carried over from the previous day. There were also wins for Lleyton Hewitt, Richard Gasquet and Gaël Monfils.

John Isner made sure that Andy Murray was the only Brit left standing in the men’s draw after the American beat Dan Smethurst 7-5 6-3 6-4.

However it wasn’t all bad news for the Brits as Heather Watson joined compatriots  Murray and Naomi Broady in the second round with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic.Next up for Watson is a tricky task against the ninth seed German Angelique Kerber who was also a straight sets winner over Urszula Radwanska.

Last year’s runner up Sabine Lisicki, who often produces he best tennis at Wimbledon, began her campaign with a comfortable 6-2 6-1 win against Julia Glushko While former Champions Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams also powered their way through to the second round with minimum fuss.