Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, with his 50th straight win on grass, eased into the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday, but there was no such satisfaction for Tim Henman, who bowed out, possibly for the last time.
Henman, who has carried British hopes at the tournament virtually single-handedly for more than a decade, ran out of steam in the fifth set of a needle-filled clash with Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
At nearly 33 and beset by back problems, it must be doubtful if Henman will carry on, although he insisted he would ”absolutely” be back next year.
In the women’s singles there were comfortable wins for defending champion Amelie Mauresmo, second seed Maria Sharapova and former champion Venus Williams.
But Wimbledon was forced to say au revoir to Tatiana Golovin and her bright red knickers — although the French teenager promised she would be back next year with even more eye-catching underwear.
The shock of the day was delivered by Australian veteran Wayne Arthurs, at 36 the oldest man in the men’s singles, who extended his Wimbledon swansong by knocking out 11th seed Tommy Robredo.
The qualifier, who intends to retire after the tournament, now has a chance of emulating his best grand-slam performance when he takes on 35-year-old Jonas Bjorkman for a place in the last 16.
Chris Guccione looked like making it a memorable double for Australia when he took a two-set lead against sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, but the Russian rallied to progress to a third-round meeting with French hope Gael Monfils.
Federer, resuming his rain-delayed match against Argentinian teenager Juan Martin del Potro at 2-0 n the third set, quickly wrapped up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 victory to set up an intriguing third-round clash with former United States and Australian Open champion Marat Safin.
The world number one has not lost on his favourite surface since he was beaten in the first round here in 2002 by Croatia’s Mario Ancic and, on Thursday’s evidence, even a player of Safin’s pedigree will struggle to halt his progress towards another final.
Federer has won seven of his nine career meetings with Safin, but the pair have not played each other since the Swiss edged a tight three-set battle on grass at Halle two years ago.
Safin, who said earlier this week that his confidence was shot, appeared to have recovered some self-belief as he made short work of Pakistani qualifier Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, winning 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
Qureshi, the first Pakistani to play in the Wimbledon men’s singles since Haroon Rahim in 1976, had dreamt of becoming the first player from his country to reach the third round. But Safin was in imperious form on the baseline and repeatedly picked off his opponent as he attempted to serve and volley his way into the history books.
”I’ll just go for it,” the Russian said of his clash with Federer. ”I’ve got nothing to lose; he is the favourite.”
Spain’s Nadal, the second seed, beat Austria’s Werner Eschauer 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 on centre court to set up a third-round clash with Sweden’s Robin Soderling, the 28th seed.
French youngster Jo-Wilfried Tsonga justified the organisers’ decision to award him a wildcard by advancing to the third round, where he will face Henman’s conqueror Lopez.
The Muhammad Ali-lookalike, who had floored Lleyton Hewitt in the warm-up tournament at Queen’s, demonstrated that he packs a punch on grass once more by sweeping experienced Ecuadorian Nicolas Lapentti aside 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
Three-times champion Venus Williams hit form in a straight sets win over Hana Sromova, while Ana Ivanovic, the new darling of the British tabloids, showed she is not just a pretty face as she eased past American Meilen Tu.
But Golovin, who again flirted with a breach of the tournament’s strict all-white code by sporting scarlet hot pants under her dress, lost in three sets to Austria’s Tamira Paszek, who goes on to face Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva.
Henman’s exit means British interest in both singles competitions ended before the end of the second round — the last female hope, Katie O’Brien, having been crushed 6-0, 6-1 by Michaella Krajicek.
O’Brien admitted afterwards that she and her peers, backed by the huge resources generated by Wimbledon, could learn a lot about desire for success from the new wave of success-hungry eastern Europeans, and Henman was even more scathing about some of his compatriots.
”For too many years we have been too accepting of mediocrity,” he complained. ”We have to be more ruthless and wipe the slate clean and start targeting the younger players because they are going to be our future.” — Sapa-AFP