London, June 26: Fifth seed Andy Roddick gunned down Briton's Greg Rusedski in a bad-tempered centre court showdown to advance to the third round of Wimbledon. The American, one of the tournament favourites, won 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/1) 7-5 to advance to a clash with Spain's Tommy Robredo, the 25th seed.
But the most eagerly anticipated clash of the tournament so far was marred by a bitter row over a controversial decision by the umpire which destroyed Rusedski's concentration just as he seemed set to claim the third set.
After losing the first two sets on tie-breaks, Rusedski appeared to have hauled himself back into the match when he broke the American's serve in the second game of the third.
But the match turned dramatically at 30-15 in the ninth game of the set when Rusedski stopped playing a point mistakenly thinking that a call of 'out' from someone in the crowd had come from a line judge.
Roddick also appeared to believe the ball had been called out but half-heartedly returned the ball as Rusedski walked to the opposite side of the court.
Rusedski felt the umpire should have ordered the point replayed and totally lost his concentration.
After Roddick had gone on to win the game, Rusedski spent the changeover berating the umpire with a string of obscenities that are bound to result in him being heavily fined. Bureau Report