Another early Wimbledon exit for Davydenko

WIMBLEDON, England, June 24 (UPI) -- World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko suffered continued problems at Wimbledon, dropping a first-round match in straight sets Tuesday at The Championships.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, No. 6 Andy Roddick, No. 8 Richard Gasquet and ninth-seeded James Blake all advanced to the second round in their first matches of the year at Wimbledon.

Davydenko fell to 4-7 -- with three of the wins coming last year -- in his career at Wimbledon after Benjamin Becker posted a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win Tuesday.

Nadal had little trouble in collecting his ATP-leading 50th match victory of the year, knocking off Andreas Beck 6-4, 6-4 7-6 (7-0) and next goes against Ernests Gulbis. Roddick fired 17 aces in a 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) win over Eduardo Schwank while Gasquet stopped Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and Blake took out Christophe Rochus 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

No. 14-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu, except for the first set, was impressive in a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 win over Oscar Hernandez and 16th-seeded Radek Stepanek advanced with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Jan Hernych.

Other seeded players who collected first-round wins Tuesday were: No. 19 Nicolas Almagro, No. 23 Tommy Robredo, No. 24 Jarkko Nieminen, No. 27 Nicolas Kiefer and No. 28 Gilles Simon.

However, 26th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic was upset 6-5, 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 2-6, 6-3 by Jurgen Melzer.