Champion Roger Federer completed his 50th consecutive grasscourt win in ten minutes on Thursday to reach the third round of Wimbledon.

The world number one's bid to emulate Bjorn Borg's five successive titles at the All England Club gathered momentum when he resumed the rain-delayed clash against Argentine teenager Juan Martin Del Potro before clinching a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 win.

The match, which began on Wednesday, had been halt due to a torrential downpour. But with Federer having led 6-2, 7-5, 2-0, his progress was never in doubt.

Russian Marat Safin, seeded 26th, set up an intriguing meeting with the Swiss by crashing qualifier Aisam Qureshi 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) to reach the last 32 at the grasscourt grand slam for only the third time.

Lleyton Hewitt, the only other men's champion in the draw, romped to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win over Simone Bolleli, while Rafael Nadal dropped only two more games than the Australian in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 exhibition against Austrian Werner Eschauer.

However, Briton Tim Henman's Wimbledon dreams were finally dashed on his fourth consecutive day of Centre Court duty as he was beaten by Feliciano Lopez in yet another five-set thriller.

The 32-year-old fought back from two sets and a break down to take the match into a decider, his 13th five-set battle during his long Wimbledon career, only to lose 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 2-6,6-1 to the Spaniard.

Lopez, 25, will face France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last 32.

"It was a very difficult match," said Henman, "the first two sets I felt like I was just playing pretty solid...you play two sets like that with no breaks, you just got to keep hanging in there."

"In the latter part of the third and fourth sets, his game dropped considerably.

"But then you get into the fifth, you've got ot try and maintain the momentum. Suddenly he just hits two or three good shots in one game and he's in the driving seat," said Henman.

On women's court, Venus Williams geared up for a potential fourth round showdown with 2004 champion Maria Sharapova with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of 170th ranked Czech Hana Sromova.

The Russian second seed was even more ruthless and trampled France's Severine Bremond 6-0, 6-3.

Just 24 hours after creating a stir at the championships by emerging on court wearing red underwear, Tatiana Golovin discovered that red was not really her lucky colour.

She became the highest women's seed to exit following a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat by Austrian Tamira Paszek.

Henman's match with Lopez had begun on Wednesday afternoon but just six minutes activity was possible before the rains came down, with the scores at one game all.

When battle resumed on Thursday lunchtime, neither player's serve looked invulnerable, but equally neither man was returning sufficiently well to make an impact.

A tight first two sets came down to tie-breaks, and Lopez deservedly took both.

The first was decided when Henman double-faulted to fall 6-3 behind, and Lopez missed five break points in set two before racing 5-0 clear in the tie-break and holding off a mini fightback to take it.

Henman looked doomed when Lopez got an early break in the third but he finally grabbed the initiative when he broke back, glaring at Lopez from the net as he took the key point.

A sublime backhand winner helped Henman to a 4-2 lead before he served out the fourth set to the ovation from the stands.

With the scores level and the crowd in full voice, Lopez headed for the locker room at the changeover. It proved a wise move as here turned to break Henman straight away.

And with the energy of the third and fourth sets long gone there was nothing Henman could do to stop Lopez wrapping up victory in three hours 17 minutes.

Lopez is one of those rare Spaniards with good Wimbledon record, having made the third round in four out of his last five appearances, not to mention the quarter-finals in 2005.

"I feel sorry for the fans because they love him and support him but when you go out there you want to win," said Lopez.

"It's very disappointing for him to lose with 15,000 people supporting him."

But Henman vowed that he would "absolutely" be back at Wimbledon next year and could see some positives from his four days of rain-disrupted action.

"I will reflect on the two matches I played, and certainly the Moya one. That's the tennis I want to play more regularly, and there's no reason why I can't do that.

"As I said, I'm not going to play forever, but I'm passionate about what I do. I love what I do. I want to make the most of it."

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2007)