Bernard Tomic's Wimbledon preparations hit a hurdle after he lost his opening match at the Eastbourne ATP/WTA event in England.
The fourth-seeded Tomic, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist last year, lost his second-round match to the 64th-ranked Italian Fabio Fognini in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Tomic, who received a first-round bye at Devonshire Park and was overnight announced as the Wimbledon 20th seed, had led 5-2 in the third set before succumbing to the clay court specialist.
Fellow Australian Marinko Matosevic will play his quarter-final against Belgian Steve Darcis this evening.
Meanwhile, three-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick renewed his grass court confidence with a place in the quarter-finals.
The American sixth seed, playing on a wildcard after an early loss at last week's Queen's Club, defeated Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) to continue his successful debut appearance in this English seaside town.
It was still hard work, with Chardy saving four match points in the 12th game of the second set and two more in the tie-breaker, before Roddick eventually came through with a winning backhand pass to end the contest.
The former world number one, now ranked 33rd, ended a six-match losing streak with his opening win after writing off his clay court season, which featured three losses in Dusseldorf and one at the French Open.
"It was good, I served well and returned pretty well. He served great on big points, but I stuck through there," Roddick said.
"I'm comfortable on this surface. I started playing really well in practice when I got here."
Elsewhere, the exodus of seeds continued, with number two Marcel Granollers of Spain going down 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.
Italian third seed Andreas Seppi is through after beating Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, while big-serving American Ryan Harrison stopped Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).
In the women's WTA field, Marion Bartoli reached the quarter-finals as she defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 6-2.
The French fourth seed is the highest-ranked survivor in a field, which lost the top three women's seeds on Tuesday along with men's number one Richard Gasquet.
Bartoli broke Wozniak, a 2009 quarter-finalist, five times. She now faces a quarter-final clash with Czech seventh seed Lucie Safarova, who ousted Britain's Heather Watson 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.
Laura Robson was next to fall, going out to Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 7-5.
German fifth seed Angelique Kerber earned a last-eight spot through a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of South African Chanelle Scheepers.
AFP/ABC
Tags: tennis, sport, england, united-kingdom First posted June 21, 2012 07:24:02
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