Soderling comes back from two sets down

LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling rallied from a two-set deficit Thursday in claiming a spot in the third round of the Wimbledon Championships.

Soderling played for nearly four hours before getting past Lleyton Hewitt 6-7 (5-7), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. Soderling had four breaks over the course of the match but the second gave him the victory when Hewitt, who won Wimbledon in 2002, hit a return into the net.

Soderling had 28 aces among his 75 winners.

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic improved to 45-1 on the year with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Kevin Anderson and Roger Federer, seeded third, finished the day's play with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Adrian Mannarino.

Play was interrupted several times by rain Thursday and several matches were suspended to be completed Friday.

No. 12-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got past Grigor Dimitrov 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) and 16th-seeded Nicolas Almagro beat John Isner 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 in a pair of lengthy matches.

Lu Yen-Hsun topped No. 13 Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-4 in the biggest upset of the day but Xavier Malisse also ousted 20th-seeded Florian Mayer 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and Karol Beck defeated No. 26-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Also advancing to the third round were No. 18 Mikhail Youzhny, 19th-seeded Michael Llodra, 24th-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, 28th-seeded Davis Nalbandian, No. 32 Marcos Baghdatis and unseeded Fernando Gonzalez.