Fallen seeds ease path to semi-final for Henman

Tim Henman's progress to the Wimbledon men's singles final became slightly less problematic yesterday. Not only did the British No 1 win his first-round match, trouncing the unheralded Frenchman Jean-François Bachelot, but two seeds in his half of the draw succumbed to surprising defeats.

The Swiss player and seventh seed, Roger Federer, a potential semi-final opponent for Henman, became the biggest casualty of the tournament so far when he crashed out to an 18-year-old Croatian.

Meanwhile, the Australian Open champion and No 8 seed, the Swede Thomas Johansson, lost to the unseeded Flavio Saretta 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 12-10 in four hours 21 minutes. Johansson had been scheduled to meet Henman in the quarter-finals.

Henman, himself, was in unstoppable form, beating Bachelot 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, and afterwards he was radiating confidence. He said: "I got off to a good start and never looked back. I felt I was ready to get going. I served well throughout and that is a very good sign."

Federer, on the other hand, never got going, losing 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to the qualifier Mario Ancic. Born in Split, Goran Ivanisevic's home town, Ancic could not have enjoyed a more breathtaking grand slam debut and was cheered on from the players' box on Centre Court by Ivanisevic's father, Srdjan.

The second youngest player in the main draw, Ancic broke twice to take the first set in 29 minutes and then destroyed Federer ­ who ended Pete Sampras' 31-match Wimbledon winning streak last year ­ in the second set tie-break, claiming it 7-2. Ancic then broke in the fourth game of the third set and held his nerve to serve out on his first match point for a memorable victory in an hour and 40 minutes.

"It was my first time here and they put me on Centre Court," he said. "I knew I could play and had nothing to lose. I didn't care who I played ­ I just wanted to do my best. Fortunately it was one of the best matches of my life."