Blake goes out with a blast

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:35

The 17th seed, who has failed to make it past the third round in six previous appearances at the All England Club, was beaten 7-5 6-4 7-6 (7/5) by Seppi on Court Three.

Blake would have expected better having reached the final at Queen’s Club and he was at a loss to explain his poor showings at Wimbledon. “I was playing pretty well at Queen’s, I thought I had a good chance to do well here,” Blake said.

“This has probably been my worst slam and I don’t understand why. I just didn’t feel like myself out there. Andreas played well when he had to and I didn’t.”

Spaniard Feliciano Lopez was another casualty in the first round, the 21st seed losing 1-6 7-5 6-3 4-6 10-8 to Slovakia’s Karol Beck in a marathon match on Court 18.

Thirteenth seed Robin Soderling, beaten by Roger Federer in the final of the French Open two weeks ago, lost the first set of his match against Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller before triumphing 6-7 (4/7) 7-5 6-1 6-2.

Another seed taken to four sets was France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the ninth seed, who eventually battled past Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5) in a match lasting more than three hours.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 27th seed, had an easier time of it, beating Florent Serra 7-6 (7/3) 6-1 6-4, while 28th seed Mardy Fish was leading Sergio Roitman 6-3 6-2 4-1 when the Argentinian retired.

The tightest match of the day was out on Court 13 where Spain’s Nicolas Almagro beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-7 (3/7) 6-7 (7/9) 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 8-6.

Italy’s Simone Bolelli also hit back from two sets down to triumph 6-7 (2/7) 2-6 7-5 6-4 6-4 against Daniel Koellerer. Exciting Serbian Janko Tipsarevic reached round two with a 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7/4) win over Czech Jan Hernych while 34-year-old Vince Spadea won his first match at Wimbledon since reaching the fourth round in 2004, beating Paul Capdeville 6-0 6-4 7-5.

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