by Richard Evans, Tennis Week, Special to FOXSports.com

Comment

With six of the top nine men's seeds already gone, the No. 1 women's seed, Ana Ivanovic, joined the procession to Heathrow after a nervous performance had left her well beaten by China's Jie Zheng. 6-1, 6-4.

There were moments towards the end of the second set when tears welled up in Ana's eyes because she knew she was not doing herself justice. After her triumph at Roland Garros, she and everyone else expected the 20-year-old Serb to at least be around on the final weekend, but in this very individual sport — which exposes the competitor to the nerve-racking demands of having to go out there and perform all on their own — the pressure of expectancy can take a terrible toll.

Tracy Austin, the former U.S. Open champion, was less surprised by Ivanovic's demise than most.

"She's just won the French; just become No. 1 in the world and that's a lot to handle when it is all new to you," said Austin. "Suddenly you are the hunted and not the hunter. It's a huge difference."

Ivanovic had been saved by the luckiest of net cords in the previous round when she should have lost to Nathalie Dechy, but there was no escape on No. 1 Court Friday because her little steely-eyed opponent hardly missed a ball.

All the stats about Zheng at the moment are misleading. She needed a wild card to gain entry here after injury had sent her ranking plummeting to 133rd in the world. But in 2006 she had reached a high of No. 27 and a big stage at Wimbledon was not foreign territory to her, either. Two years ago, she and Yan Zi became the first Chinese players ever to win a Grand Slam title when they won the Australian Open doubles title followed by the Wimbledon doubles six months later.

From the first point, Zheng looked right at home, hitting crisp, clean shots very close to the Ivanovic baseline. In contrast, the world No. 1 appeared tentative and unsure when to uncork that mighty forehand. Occasionally it struck a telling blow, but too often it was sprayed out of court and, despite breaking back early in the second set, Ivanovic could not hold her own faltering serve and looked a beaten player long before the end.

Ivanovic tried to explain why she had found it all so difficult.

"(Zheng) plays well on grass and has a powerful shot," she said. "She stays very low, so the balls are coming much faster through the air. I had a tough time to adjust to the balls with the timing. It was also a little bit windy. I tried to play balls higher, to get under the ball and play with a lot of spin. But, as I said, it was difficult to get good timing and so I was a little bit holding back."

Ivanovic, who studies psychology, was looking reasonably calm while explaining all of this. So someone asked her if she was a good actress or just philosophical.

"Trust me, it's not easy to lose," she said. "Obviously I had some time to calm down after the match. Because I think every loss is disappointing, especially when you work hard. But you have to realize that the world won't end. I'm still young and have many tournaments in front of me. These things make you realize you still have room to improve."

With the No. 1 seed gone, things are starting to look a little easier for the Williams sisters, especially after Serena had beaten another former champion, Amelie Mauresmo, on Centre Court 7-6 (5), 6-1. Both players looked tentative at the start — all sorts of players seem scared stiff of playing here this year — and on a grey day that had been interrupted early by the first drizzle of the Championships, there was little to warm a capacity crowd. Once she had broken back early in the first set, it was Mauresmo who made most of the running. She served and volleyed occasionally and used good approach shots to get in whenever possible.

But Serena, who was not moving very well early on, hung in there and made fewer errors than her opponent to take the tiebreak 7-5. Mauresmo, who has been lacking confidence and occasionally even motivation most of the year, then faded fast.

America had another winner, too, in the emerging Bethanie Mattek who removed last year's surprise finalist Marion Bartoli. Mattek's 6-4, 6-1 win can be classified as only a mild surprise because Bartoli has looked out of sorts and unfit of late and spent much of the match calling for the trainer. She was complaining of stiff arms. Afterwards the ebullient Bethanie was not complaining about anything.

"This is a pretty cool feeling," she said from underneath a cap which I will not even begin to describe. "I mean this is my best result in a Grand Slam by far, obviously. I'm really excited."

As we saw when she took a set off Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros, Mattek's game has been on an upward curve of late and she feels her move from Florida to work with a fitness trainer in Arizona has really helped her.

And then there is the mental side.

"I think in the last couple of months I have stepped up a couple of levels," she said. "It's really come down to me being mentally tough in my matches. I think what's tough about me is I just make my opponents play every single point. If I miss the previous point I'll show up for the next point. I think that's what has carried me through a lot of these matches, especially the close ones."

Next up for Mattek — Serena. If that's close, she'll be really happy.

At least a couple of other seeds progressed. Svetlana Kuznetsova, looking so much better than she had while losing in the first round in Eastbourne, defeated the Czech qualifier Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-2, 6-4, while Nicole Vaidisova had a surprisingly easy 6-2, 6-4 win over Australia's Casey Dellacqua who admitted to being completely terrified of the occasion.

"It's something I'm going to have to work on," she said.

Naturally enough, Roger Federer was far from terrified as he strolled onto Centre Court in his splendid cardigan once the rain had stopped and proceeded to remove the 31-year-old Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

After saying how happy he was to have played so well, especially on a windy day, Federer turned his attention to others. Asked about the departure of Andy Roddick and James Blake, Federer said, "I saw a little bit of Blake. You know, he's struggled on grass always a little bit so that's not as big a surprise as Andy losing. I really thought he had a shot this year of doing really well again. But it was a disappointing match for him, no doubt. (Janko) Tipsarevic, obviously he's a dangerous and a tough player. But I still would have thought Andy would have come through. So, he'll be very disappointed because there goes another chance for Andy at Wimbledon."

The big question is, of course, how much chance anyone other than Rafael Nadal has when Federer plays like this. On grass, the Swiss star has 62 successive wins.

And counting.