Roddick scrapes through

Roddick, twice a beaten finalist at the All England Club, opened the match with two aces and raced into a 5-0 lead for the loss of just three points in 12 minutes on Centre Court.

But after taking the first set 6-3 and the second on a tie-break, Roddick lost the third set and looked bereft of ideas before a timely 'comfort break' helped the former world number one regain his composure and secure a 6-3 7-6 4-6 6-3 win.

Marat Safin became the biggest casualty of the championships so far when the 14th seed crashed out at the hands of little-known American qualifier Jesse Levine.

Safin, a surprise semi-finalist last year, has already announced he will retire at the end of this season and his last memories of SW19 will be unhappy ones after world number 133 Levine won 6-2 3-6 7-6 6-4 on Court 18.

Meanwhile, Juan Martin Del Potro eased his way into the second round with a straight-sets victory over Arnaud Clement on Court One. The Argentinian fifth seed dropped just six games on his way to a 6-3 6-1 6-2 victory over the Frenchman in blazing sunshine and faces Lleyton Hewitt in the next round.

Hewitt, the 2002 champion but unseeded this year, also only dropped six games in thrashing American Robby Ginepri 6-4 6-1 6-1.

Elsewhere, 24th seed Tommy Haas beat Alexander Peya of Austria in four sets in a match held over from Monday evening.

Radek Stepanek beat Alejandro Fallam, David Ferrer beat Kevin Kim, and number 10 seed Fernando Gonzalez enjoyed a straight-sets win over Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Eighth seed Gilles Simon enjoyed an easy 6-4 6-3 6-3 win over American Bobby Reynolds but 25th seed Dmitry Tursunov, the Eastbourne champion on Sunday, was forced to retire with an ankle injury after losing the first two sets and trailing 3-0 in the third to Germany's Mischa Zverev.