Smash hit

17.44: James Ward of Great Britain is playing his first match in The Championships, having been awarded a wild card. Unfortunately he has dropped his serve in the first game against Fernando Verdasco of Spain, the seventh seed.

17.43: Ivan Ljubicic has withdrawn through injury. He damaged an ankle at Eastbourne last week in a match against his friend Fabrice Santoro.

17.42: Djokovic loses the first set to Benneteau after a compelling tie-break that ended 10-8. .

17.30: Larcher de Brito has made the right sort of noise, beating Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-5. She lives to shriek another day.

17.16: Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the number 4 seed, is playing Julien Benneteau of France, the world number 80, on Centre Court. Neither player was able to establish any daylight between him and his opponent in the first set, which is in a tie-break.

17.00: Kaya has been on Court 17, watching Michelle Larcher de Brito, the Portuguese player whose arrival in London SW19 has been causing concern for branches of the noise abatement society as far away as Surbiton and Battersea. They needn't have worried, apparently. "Larcher de Brito is making a noticeable effort to keep her titanic grunting down to a quiet minimum," Kaya tells us. "It's just a little mini-shriek now."

16.15: Serena Williams is through. The second set against Neuza Silva was more of a test for Williams, but she has won 6-1, 7-5.

15.57: An epic men's singles match has finally ended after three hours and 43 minutes on Court 18 with the elimination of Feliciano Lopez of Spain, the 21st seed. He was beaten 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 by Karol Beck of Slovakia, who was banned for two years for a doping offence between 2005 and 2007 and entered the main draw as a lucky loser after falling in the final round of qualifying.

With Rafael Nadal out of The Championships, a lot of Spanish fans had high hopes for Lopez, a quarter-finalist last year - but after breezing through the first set 6-1, he found himself in a battle against an opponent who refused to give up despite a heavily-strapped ankle. Both men squandered match points in a fifth set that lasted an hour and 17 minutes before Beck finally triumphed.

15.54: Silva has taken two games in the second set, and Williams has had some lapses of concentration, but the American is on course for victory.

15.36: Serena Williams is proving too good for Neuza Silva of Portugal on Centre Court. The qualifier is trying her best and has had her moments, but is not in the same class as Williams, the No 2 seed and the winner of ten Grand Slam titles, who took the first set 6-1, ending with a run of 11 successive points.

15.06: Roger Federer, the highest-seeded player since the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal, is through, beating Yen-Hsun Lu 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.