| Wednesday, 25 June 2008 Written by Sally Easton It's not just Roger, you know. Switzerland’s "other" male player, Stanislas Wawrinka, whose progress in recent months is such that he's 13th seed here and rated a passing mention in great champion's press conference today, was in action today against Argentine teenager Juan Martin del Potro. The first set was evenly matched, with both players hitting well from the baseline, until the trainer was called for to attend to a Del Potro nosebleed. Play continued, but the 19-year-old was clearly perturbed. The Argentine worked hard to keep his service to force the tie-break. Del Potro was still worried about his nose bleed and that distraction. An early break by Wawrinka in the tie-break was enough for the Swiss, who pocketed the set with a delicious ace down the line, after a full 66 minutes of play. Wawrinka, who’s been in the world’s top 50 for the last two years, took the second set much more comfortably and remained in control to win in straight sets, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 7-5. The Swiss duo aside, a veritable smorgasbord of European nations were represented in the second round. Croat Mario Ancic, a semi-finalist here in 2004, looked strong at the start of his second round match against Germany’s Philipp Petzschner. Ancic took the first two sets with ease, but the 24-year-old German found better form in the third set, winning the tie-break convincingly, and he won the fourth set with a precision ace. Ancic had to dig deep to win in three hours and 11 minutes. An even longer five-setter - at three hours, 42 minutes - also involved a German player, Simon Stadler. Having seen off 18th seed Ivo Karlovic in round one, he had to pull out all the stops to defeat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil. Moving to Mediterranean Europe, the Franco-Italian encounter of Florent Serra versus 29th seed Andreas Seppi turned into something of a marathon, but Seppi’s greater skill showed where it counted. After three hours and one minute, the 29th seed worked a break of serve opportunity in the final set, winning it with a glorious forehand groundstroke right to the bottom corner of the court. Things were not so fortunate for the 21st seed, Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who retired in the third set of his match against 21-year-old German Mischa Zverev. The German, ranked 92 in the world, had been having something of a purple patch on Court 3, racing away with the first two sets, and was 2-1 up in the third, before Ferrero withdrew, one of eight men to retire injured this year, a record for the Championships. Other Spaniards in action today included 31st seed Feliciano Lopez, who made short shrift of his Croatian opponent, Roko Karanusic, winning in straight sets in just 80 minutes, and Fernando Verdasco, the 22nd seed, who saw off Olivier Rochus of Belgium in four sets. And at the end of the day fifth seed David Ferrer saw off the challenge from Russia’s Igor Andreev. Italian Simone Bolelli, who disposed of Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic in the first round, enjoyed one of Europe's most impressive results of the day, ousting Chilean 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez in four sets. He won both the first two sets on tie-break (10-8 and 9-7), which shows how tight the match was. Gonzalez came into the third set fighting harder, and got an immediate break of serve. But in the fourth set, 3-2 up, Gonzalez took a nasty slip as he ran to the net, which unsettled him enough to lose his own service. But it was a transitory impediment which did not stop him racing around the court. Another tie-break ensued, which Bolelli took to win the match.
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