TENNIS in DEPTH.

Marin Cilic became the first big-name casualty of Wimbledon 2010 when he lost in the first round, but Nikolay Davydenko narrowly avoided joining him through the exit door.

The 11th-seeded Croat, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open and rated as a dark horse by some in SW19, slumped to a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Florian Mayer.

The German triumphed 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7/1) at the All England Club.

Mayer reached the quarter-finals on his Wimbledon debut back in 2004 and will be hopeful of another good run after this result.

Davydenko, meanwhile, had to dig deep before finally seeing off Kevin Anderson in a five-set thriller which lasted more than four hours.

The Russian enjoyed his last visit to London – he won the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena last November – but it appeared his return was turning sour when he fell two sets down to the big-serving South African, who finished with 36 aces.

Davydenko only recently returned to the tour after suffering a broken wrist earlier in the year and he looked a little rusty in the opening exchanges.

But he showed plenty of character to turn the match round, much to the delight of the crowd on Court One, and he recovered to post a 3-6 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 9-7 victory.

Novak Djokovic recovered from an early onslaught by Olivier Rochus and a mid-match closing of the Centre Court roof to book his place in the Wimbledon second round on Monday.

Djokovic, who trailed 3-1 in career meetings against the feisty 5-ft-5 Belgian, looked set for an early exit after Rochus’s crisp groundstrokes and shrewd shot placement gave him a two sets to one lead.

But Djokovic seemed reinvigorated once fading light prompted the closure of the roof after the third set and clinched the fourth before going on to seal a 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-2 triumph.

The Serb will play American Taylor Dent in the second round.

Related Posts:

• Routine wins for Federer, Murray and Djokovic.
• Rafa looks sharp while Djokovic struggles thru.
• Davydenko joins the injured list as he withdraws from Dubai.

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