Roddick safely past Udomchoke into third round

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) Third seed Andy Roddick thundered into the third round of Wimbledon today with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 defeat of Thailand's Danai Udomchoke.

The American powerhouse needed just one break of serve in each of the opening two sets with the 114th-ranked Udomchoke struggling to make much impression on Centre Court.

When Roddick then went a break ahead in the third set the outcome looked a formality but his Thai opponent gradually began to make inroads on the American's atomic serve.

Roddick held from 0-40 down at 3-2 but he was pegged back at 4-3 when Udomchoke belted a sublime backhand winner down the line to get back into the set with his first break of the match.

Udomchoke suddenly began to look dangerous but the busy Roddick snuffed out the threat with some solid all-court tennis in the tiebreak.

REUTERS BJR KP2036