Safin Beats Philippoussis in Bomb-fest at Wimbledon

"I felt a little bit in the third set, yeah, he couldn't really move to the sides," said Safin who was out-aced 21 to 20. "That's how I made to him a break actually."

Returning from a spate of injuries and questionable drive, Philippoussis says the best is still yet to come.

"I know my best tennis is ahead of me. It's as simple as that," Philippoussis said. "I know I've proven it to myself here. The eagerness is back. I'm just going to get stronger. I'm going to go back and work hard. This is nothing. I'm going to get over it. There's only more positive things to come."

World No. 1 Roger Federer also cruised to another straight-set victory over an opponent that stretched him to three sets in their last meeting earlier this year in Czech Ivo Minar.

"I was waiting for a tough match because I knew he was serving pretty good from Dubai, because I had my difficulties of breaking him," Federer said. "I knew that if I just stayed tough, you know, he's going to make maybe some shots he shouldn't do, like the dropshot, you know. So I was just hang in there and hoping for those moments really."

Other seeded winners Wednesday were (3) Lleyton Hewitt (d. Hernych in four sets), (9) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Llodra in five), (10) Mario Ancic (d. Udomchoke in four), (11) Joachim Johansson (d. Rusedski in four), (21) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Zib, dropping 32 aces), (23) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. H.-T. Lee in five), (24) Taylor Dent (d. K.Kim), (25) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Di Mauro), (26) Feliciano Lopez (d. Sherwood), and (31) Mikhail Youzhny (d. Lisnard in four).

"It just didn't go my way and of course you are disappointed when you play so well and you give everything and the crowd's behind you," Rusedski said. "I'll be back next year. Hopefully I can get a seed which will help."

For Dent the wins are coming surprisingly easy considering he has been unable to stay in shape due to an ankle injury.

"My serve was a little hot and cold today," Dent said. "I'd get myself into trouble, but then surprisingly I'd serve my way out of trouble. So that was kind of the underlying theme today of what happened. If I was going to go out and work on something this afternoon, that's what it would be."

Winners in the only two all-unseeded match-ups were German Florian Mayer (d. Verdasco) and Czech Tomas Berdych (d. Burgsmuller).

Three seeds fell by the wayside on the day with Swede Jonas Bjorkman winning over (8) Nikolay Davydenko when the Russian retired in the second set with a wrist injury, French teen Gael Monfils ousting (22) Dominik Hrbaty in four, and surprising American Justin Gimelstob shrugging off a back injury to subdue (29) Nicolas Massu in four sets.

"I think now, hopefully with this, maybe I'll get back in the Top 100," said Gimelstob, who retired during a qualifying match with a back injury, then got into the main draw as a lucky loser. "It will probably be my third time of coming back from oblivion to back in the Top 100. You know, it's tough...But for me, I broke my foot -- at the end of the year, I had foot surgery. I was out seven months. You start from scratch...I've had really bad problems with my back. I mean, even this year I've missed probably six weeks of tournaments with my back. I had my, you know, 13th or 14th cortisone injection Wednesday...Luckily my physical therapist is here with me."

On Thursday's schedule at the All-England Club are (6) Tim-"bledon" Henman vs. Tursunov, Daniele "Choppin'" Bracciali vs. (2) Roddick, Muller vs. (4) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, (14) Stepanek vs. Murray, (15) Guillermo "El Mago" Coria vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, Fabrice "The Original El Mago" Santoro vs. (28) Novak, Andreev vs. Sanguinetti, Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez vs. Djokovic, (33) Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. Max "Pest Control" Mirnyi, Tipsarevic vs. Lu, (27) Gasquet vs. Elseneer, Hanescu vs. (9) Grosjean, Pavel vs. (12) T.Johansson, Calatrava vs. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp vs. Wayne "The Serving Machine" Arthurs, and Kucera vs. (18) Nalbandian.