London, June 24: Lleyton Hewitt's defence of his Wimbledon title lasted less than two and a half hours at the hands of giant Croatian qualifier Ivo Karlovic yesterday. But Andy Roddick, one of the leading pretenders to Hewitt's crown, blazed into the second round, where he will go head to head with Britain's Greg Rusedski in a battle of the two fastest servers on the men's circuit.
In one of the biggest opening day shocks ever seen at the All England club, Karlovic came back from a disastrous opening set to win his first ever grand slam match 1-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 6-4 victory in 2hr 24min. "In the first set I was completely scared", Karlovic said after the match. "But afterwards I thought I could beat him, I thought I could play better and I began to believe in myself in the third set". The defeat made Hewitt only the second men's champion since the tournament's inception in 1877 to bow out in the first round, emulating the unfortunate Manolo Santana who fell to American Charlie Passarell in the first round in 1967.

There were no excuses from the Australian, who was undone by uncharacteristic lapses on the big points. Presented with 13 break points, he managed to claim only three in the match.

"I was seeing the ball well. I could have been 6-1 4-0 up. But I just didn't take my chances", he admitted.

"I gave him those chances and to his credit he picked up. He got better and better as the match went on."

Hewitt's demise boosted Roddick's status as one of the favourites to take over as men's champion and the young American justified his billing.

Bureau Report