Murray eases into third round

British third seed Andy Murray eased into the Wimbledon third round yesterday with a 6-2 7-5 6-3 win over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.

Murray will face Serbian 30th seed Viktor Troicki for a place in the last 16.

The 22-year-old Murray, bidding to end Britain's 73-year wait for a home men's champion, met little resistance from Gulbis, the world 74 who was a French Open quarter-finalist in 2008.

"He had a chance to break at the start, but after that I relaxed and then served really well for the rest of the match," said Murray.

Breaks in the fifth and seventh games of the opener earned Murray the first set.

The big serve of Gulbis kept him in the match in the second set, but he cracked in the 11th game and allowed his opponent to move further ahead in what was becoming a disappointingly, one-sided affair.

The Latvian was quickly behind again at 1-2 and a poor volley handed Murray match point in the ninth game. That was transformed into victory when Murray, who sent down just five unforced errors in the match, unleashed a winning crosscourt forehand after only 90 minutes on court.

Earlier in the day, Lleyton Hewitt caused the week's biggest upset as Venus Williams, who between her and sister Serena have collected silverware in enormous quantities in Wimbledon, powered past Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko.

The American five-times champion, who cooled talk of injury despite a strapping on her left knee, powered through 6-3 6-2 into the third round where she was joined by Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Hewitt, the 2002 champion, rolled back the years with a clinical straight sets defeat of fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, handing out a free lesson in the grasscourt arts to the towering Argentine.

Venus, seeking a hat-trick of titles, looked in fine fettle as she went through the gears with ease against Bondarenko.

"I always felt like I needed to be the aggressive one and really take control of the point. That's really how I want to play throughout the championships," she said.

Quizzed about what was wrong with her knee, the 29-year-old proved evasive.

"Support...," she told reporters.

While Venus had it taped, over on Centre Court, Hewitt was simply superb against rising force Del Potro, producing some trademark lobs and precision passing shots to keep the 20-year-old off balance.

"I haven't beaten a top five player for a long time. I was up for it today. I've played some big matches out here in the past and it's about handling the pressure," a delighted Hewitt, who is down at 56 in the ATP rankings, told the BBC.

Women's fifth seed Kuznetsova, who won the French Open this month to add to the US Open crown she claimed in 2004, has never looked at home on grass.

However, the Russian put on an impressive show of force to thrash Pauline Parmentier, of France, 6-1 6-3, crunching some hefty winners in a 60-minute breeze.

World number one and top seed Safina, beaten by Kuznetsova in the Roland Garros final, again failed to make Centre Court, edging past Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios in straight sets on Court Two.

Meanwhile, American sixth seed Andy Roddick overcame a mid-match stutter to beat Russia's Igor Kunitsyn 6-4 6-2 3-6 6-2.

Roddick, twice a finalist at the All England Club, will face Austrian 26th seed Juergen Melzer in round three.