'Beast of Belarus' mauls Blake

After four days during which the top seeds appeared to be smoothly sidestepping the regular pitfalls, the bushwack attempts by wannabes, the broad-daylight heists and the personal catastrophes that make the first week anything but harmless for the world's best but interesting for the rest of us, two suddenly dropped out within sight of the sanctuary of the first weekend.

Argentina's David Nalbandian was first to go, tumbling from his protected perch of fourth seed to the Spanish 28th seed, Fernando Verdasco, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (9), 6-2.

The 2002 finalist's demise at the hands of the 22-year-old Spaniard, who has not been past the second round, thus ends Nalbandian's Wimbledon run of never having lost before the last 16 in his four previous appearances.

Nalbandian was followed out of the draw and into a premature hardcourt season by the affable New Yorker James Blake, whose ranking of eighth has caught up with his soaring popularity. Something of a glossy-magazine-cover pretty-boy, the Harvard-educated Blake was mauled by the 6ft 5in Max Mirnyi, known fondly as the Beast of Belarus, in five sets, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.

"I didn't play good. I couldn't return any serve," said Nalbandian, who was allowed by sympathetic organisers to play his match early so he could watch his country take on the hosts Germany in the World Cup.

"I miss a lot of chances. He played okay. He don't play great. I just lose by myself."

Blake was more articulate in his analysis of defeat but came up with the same simple formula of not being able to hit in first serves with regularity.

"He played well, my serve stopped going in," said Blake. "One of those things. He's one of the toughest guys to play with a second serve."

As if he needed a leg-up, the consequences of those two defeats opens up the top half of the draw for top seed and world number one Roger Federer. He struggled a little more than we are used to seeing in his three-set win over Nicolas Mahut, but lengthened an already outrageous run of having dropped only four sets since Wimbledon 2003.

Mahut's extreme tactic of hitting first serves twice unsettled the Swiss player, until ripping ground strokes and an improved serve of his own allowed him dominate.

The draw is now opening up for the champion until the semi-finals. Compare that to the lower half, where Rafael Nadal (two), Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick (three) and the quietly advancing Croatian fifth seed, Ivan Ljubicic, remain alive and hopeful.

Today, however, the meeting of the championship so far, between Agassi and Nadal, will remove one of the trumpeted players.

Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, moved into the third round after 37 minutes of play, winning the final set against the South Korean Hyung-Taik Lee to strengthen his claim as one of the title contenders, one backed up by none other than Federer.

Hewitt and Scotland's Andy Murray were forced to return yesterday to play when bad light forced a halt to their matches on Thursday.

Hewitt, the sixth-seeded Australian, and the 102nd-ranked Lee were level at two sets each on Thursday, while Murray led Julien Benneteau 2-1. Resuming on Court One yesterday, after a 15-hour gap, Hewitt reacted best to the extended decider, winning 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (5-7), 6-4. Overall the match lasted four minutes short of four hours.

The sixth seed took the first game with an ace, before squeezing Lee further by taking the first three points of his serve, the first with a finely placed forehand lob as Lee moved forward.

Although Lee fought off three break points to hold serve and tested Hewitt in the third game, he was unable to reach even break point as the pumped-up Australian used all of his tactical nous and aggression.

Strong serving allowed Hewitt to lead 5-4 before he broke his opponent's serve, Lee winning the first point and then losing four in a row to hand over the match.

Hewitt faces Olivier Rochus of Belgium in the next round.

Murray, the 19-year-old Scot, was even more impressive when he came out to an expectant Centre Court crowd. He won six games in succession at the beginning of the fourth set to take hold and strangle out Benneteau.

For that cameo and the four-set win, Murray is gifted with a meeting with Roddick - whom he beat in the final of the San Jose tournament - in the third round today.