Davydenko crashes to Becker

Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko became the biggest casualty of this year's Wimbledon so far as the Russian suffered a disappointing straight sets defeat to Germany's world number 116 Benjamin Becker.

Davydenko's 6-4 6-4 6-4 loss was his fifth first-round exit in seven appearances at the All England Club, although his best run had come last year when he reached the last 16.

However, it was back business as usual on Court Two on Tuesday as Becker - hardly brimming with grand slam pedigree having lost in the first round of his last six majors - seized control of the match from the start, serving consistently and never once losing his advantage as he marched into the second round.

Second seed Rafael Nadal came through a surprisingly strenuous workout against German qualifier Andreas Beck before moving into the second round with a straight sets win on Centre Court.

The Spaniard had good cause to be surprised by the consistency of his opponent, the world number 122 who was making his grand slam debut and competing in his first ever senior event outside his homeland.

But Beck served well and provided the sort of booming groundstrokes which might have lacked Nadal's verve and variety but still gave the favourite plenty to think about.

Never unduly challenged on his own serve, Nadal secured breaks in the seventh and third games, respectively, of the first two sets then raced through a third set tie-break to wrap up a 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7/0) victory.

Nadal faces a potentially much trickier test against rising Latvian star Ernests Gulbis, a winner over towering American John Isner in four sets.