Seeds bloom on grass after rain

Twice Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, showing no signs of the abdominal injury that bedevilled her in Paris, swept into the third round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik.

Her exquisite cross-court passing shots brought gasps of admiration from the Centre Court crowd, but Williams’ patchy service often let her down in the difficult swirling conditions.

Williams, a notoriously slow starter, level-pegged to 3-3 in the first set but then effortlessly stepped up a gear to break Srebotnik’s service. The Slovenian’s resistance crumbled in the second set and it took Williams just over an hour to ease through to a smooth victory.

Casting off his his underachievers’ reputation with each victory — Federer has lost in the first round here three of his four previous visits — the Swiss put on a virtuoso performance for tennis purists. “It was great to be out there, especially with a good friend,” he said. “My serve was good. Everything felt good today, good returning. I really feel like I am playing well, you know?”

That fact will not have been missed by the rest of the top of the field, but Federer is remaining level-headed.

“I know I am the highest seed left in the top half of the draw after Lleyton Hewitt lost but I don’t see myself straight in the final.” Federer had to survive a half-hour rain delay before finishing and treated the slick surface gingerly. “It was a bit slippery out there, you had to be careful,” he said. “There could have been an accident.

“It doesn’t help, you don’t feel secure. You get a little worried but it is important to forget these things.” His powerful serve left Koubek flapping at thin air while his unfurled backhand was a thing of delight, confounding the Austrian at every turn. Next up for the stylish Swiss is 45th-ranked Mardy Fish.

Fish scaled new heights at Wimbledon earlier on an outside court, ousting fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-4, 6-4, 6-1. The 21-year-old had never won a match at the All England Club before this year and his victory on court 11 matches the best Grand Slam performance of his career. Fish, a runner-up on grass at Nottingham last week, used slice to great effect to finally beat Gambill, who had won the pair’s previous three matches.

Ninth seed Rainer Schuettler also advanced smoothly. The German, a surprise finalist at the Australian Open in January, beat Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

In the women’s draw, 12th seed Magdalena Maleeva was ousted. The Bulgarian fell 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Argentine Paola Suarez. Thirteenth seed Ai Sugiyama survived a shock to beat Slovak Eva Fislova 6-1, 6-7, 7-5. Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal ousted British wildcard Lee Childs 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round, continuing to show a surprising aptitude for grasscourt play for someone of his pedigree.

Nadal, who at 17 is the youngest player in the men’s draw, has been hailed as the latest in a long line of Spanish claycourt maestros having beaten two of them — former French Open champions Albert Costa and Carlos Moya — this season.

The Mallorcan, who is making his Grand Slam debut this week, looked at ease on the grass and was quick to come to the net from the start to win points with some well-placed volleys.

But it was his scything passing shots that did for the 487-ranked Briton, who was on a high after upsetting Russian 33rd seed Nikolay Davydenko in the first round. Childs began confidently, hitting a 118-mph (189.9 kph) ace with his first serve, but the young Spaniard broke him early in the first set. (Reuters)