Tomas Berdych battles to four-set win at rain-hit Wimbledon, Dominic Thiem takes sweet revenge

ByReuters

Updated 29/06/2016 at 21:19 GMT

Tomas Berdych battled the elements and a gritty display by his unseeded Croatian opponent Ivan Dodig on Wednesday before sealing a 7-6(5) 5-7 6-1 7-6(2) win.

Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon 2016

Image credit: Reuters

With the rain cutting a swathe through the programme for the second day running, the 10th-seeded Czech served for the match when play resumed after being called off with him leading 4-1 in the fourth set the previous day.

But in damp windy conditions that gradually turned to steady drizzle and led to play being called off on all but one of Wimbledon's other outside courts, Dodig broke serve and saved two match points before taking the match to a tiebreak.

But Berdych, runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the All England Club in 2010 and contesting his 52nd consecutive grand slam, steadied his nerves to take the breaker 7-2 when he forced a backhand error from Dodig.

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The Czech, vocal in his criticism of how French Open officials managed rain interruptions at Roland Garros earlier this month, next plays unseeded German Benjamin Becker.

Play on all outside courts was suspended until 1430 BST, with further rain delays forecast into the evening.

Austrian tyro Dominic Thiem took sweet revenge on unseeded Florian Mayer at Wimbledon on Wednesday, dodging the showers to dispatch the veteran German 7-5 6-4 6-4 in just over 1-1/2 hours of cut-and-thrust tennis.

Austria's Dominic Thiem celebrates winning his match against Germany's Florian Mayer

Image credit: Reuters

Mixing his trademark power groundstrokes with dropshots and deft touches at the net, the 22-year-old number eight seed broke his opponent once in each set in a first-round match that was twice interrupted by rain.

Mayer, 32, beat the Austrian in their last grasscourt encounter -- the semi-finals of the Halle tournament earlier this month, which the German went on to win.

Thiem wrapped things up on his first match point when Mayer hit a service return long, the Austrian having benefited earlier in the game from a service ace that Hawkeye showed had just clipped the centre line.