Clinical Roddick shuts out Anderson

One break of serve in each set was enough for the American four-time Queen’s champion who was rock solid throughout on a bright day at the exclusive west London club.

The 2.03-metre Anderson stuck to his task but former world number one Roddick showed plenty of grasscourt nous to convert the few opportunities that came along.

“It was solid,” Roddick, who cracked down two serves of 225 kph in the closing stages, said at courtside. “I had a game plan and was able to stick to it today. There were never going to be many breaks but that's grasscourt tennis.”

Roddick, a popular player in London for his all-action style and three losing Wimbledon finals, will face seventh seed Fernando Verdasco in the last eight after the Spaniard beat Argentina’s David Nalbandian 7-5, 6-1.

Nadal advances
Rafael Nadal swapped clay for grass on Wednesday but the result was just as emphatic with the world number one overpowering Australia's Matthew Ebden.

The reigning Wimbledon champion, fresh from his record-equalling sixth French Open title, beat gallant qualifier Ebden 6-4, 6-4 to move into the third round after Britain's Andy Murray, the second seed, won a three-setter against Xavier Malisse.

Top seed Nadal, who passed the time with some table football in the players' lounge as rain delayed his opening singles match, unleashed some trademark forehand firepower on the 168th-ranked Ebden who provided an ideal test.

Just five days after losing to Nadal in the French Open semifinals on clay, Britain's world number four Murray made a stuttering start, beating Belgian Malisse 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in a match played in two chunks either side of a lengthy rain break.

Second seed Murray, the 2009 champion at the most traditional of English venues, lost his way at the end of the second set but hit back to reach the third round. Murray faces Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the third round.

Croatia's Marin Cilic, the eighth seed, wasted no time against French qualifier Arnaud Clement, winning 6-4, 6-4 before the showers arrived, while big-serving South African Kevin Anderson eased past American Donald Young 6-2, 6-4.

Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro also reached the third round with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Russia's Igor Kunitsyn and was joined there by Argentine compatriot David Nalbandian who saw off Serbia's Ilija Bozoljac by the same margin.