Federer slips into Wimbledon third round

LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- Defending champion Roger Federer survived another tough challenge and advanced Wednesday into the third round at Wimbledon.

Federer, the No. 1 seed, was pushed to five sets in his first-round match and needed nearly 3 hours Wednesday to get past No. 152nd-ranked Ilija Bozoljac 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Federer had only 13 unforced errors and didn't drop serve but didn't appear to have his usual control.

Much of the attention Wednesday was on a first-round match that didn't end. No. 23-seeded John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, who were tied at two sets each when play was suspended Tuesday, fought to a record 59-59 draw in the fifth set before play was stopped Wednesday because of darkness.

The total time of the match so far is 10 hours, after the two played 7 hours, 6 minutes Wednesday. The fifth set alone is longer than the previous record for match length and their 163 games -- so far -- smashed the record for games in a match set in 1969 when Pancho Gonzales defeated Charlie Pasarell in a Wimbledon match that went 112 games.

Back in the second round, third-seeded Novak Djokovic defeated Taylor Dent 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-4 and No. 5-seeded Andy Roddick beat Michael Llodra 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).

But seventh-seeded Nikolay Davydenko was ousted by Daniel Brands 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (10-8), 6-1 in the day's lone ouster of a seeded player.

Also, 12th-seeded Tomas Berdych stopped Benjamin Becker 7-5, 6-3, 6-4; 15th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt rolled by Evgeny Korolev 6-4, 6-4, 6-0; and No. 16 Jurgen Melzer slipped by Viktor Troicki 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.

Other seeded second-round winners included 21st-seeded Gael Monfils, No. 22 Feliciano Lopez, 28th-seeded Albert Montanes, 29th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber and No. 31 Victor Hanescu.

Unseeded victors Wednesday were Arnaud Clement, Denis Istomin, Yen-Hsun Lu and Florian Mayer in second-round play while Thiemo de Bakker finished off a first-round win.