Blake goes out with a blast

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 Italy's Andreas Seppi on Court Three.

Blake would have expected better having reached the recent 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," he 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.

Federer, the highest seed following Nadal's withdrawal, got off to a relatively slow start in his first match on grass this year but upped his game to see off Yen-Hsun Lu 7-5 6-2 6-3. The Swiss star will play Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two.

Serbian Djokovic was given a much sterner test by Julien Benneteau, losing the first set before eventually coming through 6-7 (8/10) 7-6 (7/1) 6-2 6-4, with the Frenchman needing treatment at match point after slipping at the back of the court.

Thirteenth seed Robin Soderling, beaten by Federer in the final of the French Open two weeks ago, lost his first set to 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.

Seventh seed Fernando Verdasco had an easier time of it against British wild-card entry James Ward, winning 6-1 6-3 6-4, while 15th seed Tommy Robredo beat Luka Gregorc 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7/3) and big-serving Ivo Karlovic, seeded 22nd, defeated Lukas Lacko 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 6-3.