Murray, Nadal safely through at rain-hit Wimbledon

Defending champion Nadal on Wednesday eased past Wimbledon debutant Ryan Sweeting of the United States 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

The world number one, bidding for a third Wimbledon title and 11th career Grand Slam crown, goes on to tackle Luxembourg\'s Gilles Muller, who beat him here in 2005.

Muller made it through when dangerous Canadian 31st seed Milos Raonic retired after just five games of their second round clash when he fell awkwardly and injured his leg.

Nadal said he preferred to play without the ÂŁ80 million roof covering the action on Centre Court.

"This is the best court in the world. It\'s a pleasure always to play here. It\'s a new experience under the roof but I prefer to play with no roof, that\'s for sure.

"It\'s very humid and the court is slippery just to the left of the Royal Box."

Murray, seeded fourth and scheduled to meet Nadal in the last four, was equally untroubled, racing to a 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 win over Germany\'s Tobias Kamke.

The Scotsman, a semi-finalist for the last two years, next takes on Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic for a place in the last 16.

Three-times runner-up Andy Roddick, the eighth seed, also eased through, defeating Romania\'s Victor Hanescu 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 and next plays Spain\'s Feliciano Lopez.

Heavy morning rain meant a three-hour delay to action away from the covered Centre Court with Swiss 14th seed Stanislas Wawrinka and Juan Ignacio Chela, the Argentine 25th seed left wishing the downpours had continued.

Wawrinka went down 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to Italian lucky loser Simone Bolelli, the Italian world 116, while Chela went out 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 to Alex Bogomolov of the United States.

But there were no such problems for Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, last year\'s runner-up, who defeated France\'s Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

Flamboyant French player Gael Monfils, the ninth seed, also made it through with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) win over Slovenia\'s Grega Zemlja.

American 10th seed Mardy Fish eased past Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-4 while 2007 semi-finalist Richard Gasquet, the French 17th seed, beat Russia\'s Igor Kunitsyn 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

On the women\'s side, Venus Williams came from behind to reach the third round in a gruelling three-hour battle with 40-year-old Japanese opponent Kimiko Date-Krumm.

Williams, 31, was forced to dig deep as Date-Krumm proved to be an unexpectedly awkward opponent for the five-time Wimbledon champion, who finally prevailed 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 8-6 before a rapt Centre Court.

The win put Williams into a third round tie against Spain\'s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Friday, who defeated Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-0 earlier.

Williams, seeded 23, is feeling her way back into tennis after a five-month lay-off following an injury sustained at the Australian Open in January.

There was a happier outcome for another Japanese woman however, with qualifier Misaki Doi, the world number 133, stunning 30th seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in the first round.

Elsewhere however the form book held sway as five more seeded players advanced safely to the second round.

Polish 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska didn\'t drop a game in her match against Olga Govortsova, winning 6-0, 3-0 before the Belarussian retired hurt.

Italy\'s Flavia Pennetta, seeded 21, downed Irina Begu of Romania 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-2 while Australia\'s Jarmila Gajdosova beat Ukraine\'s Alona Bondarenko 7-5, 6-3.

Slovakian 24th seed Dominika Cibulkova came from a set down to edge out Mirjana Lucic 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 but there was no such difficulty for Germany\'s Julia Goerges, seeded 16, who breezed past Spain\'s Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-0.

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