Regal Federer takes royal route at Wimbledon

Six-time champion Roger Federer reached the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy's Fabio Fognini, a regal performance witnessed by Britain's Prince Charles. The third-seeded Swiss took just 74 minutes to defeat Fognini, who received a quick lesson in bowing from Federer before walking onto Centre Court where Charles, on a first visit to the All England Club in more than 40 years, was watching with his wife Camilla from the royal box. Federer, chasing Pete Sampras's record of seven Wimbledon titles, fired 13 aces and 35 winners and has lost just nine games in his first two rounds. "I'm very happy to have won and to be back on Centre Court. It's great to have that feeling and to see Charles and Camilla up there is just great for tennis," said Federer. "We were told beforehand that they were coming and we were asked to bow. We said no problem." Federer who has lost in the quarter-finals for the last two years, next faces either France's Julien Benneteau or Michael Russell of the United States for a place in the last 16. US Open champion Samantha Stosur suffered another Wimbledon nightmare as the fifth seed crashed out in the second round, meaning there are no Australians left in either the men's or women's singles. Stosur, 28, had never been past the third round in nine previous visits to the All England Club and that miserable sequence was extended with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 defeat against world number 72 Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. "This year I hated the grass a little bit less than in previous years," said Stosur. "I still love playing at Wimbledon, but obviously it hasn't been my best tournament." Meanwhile, Italy's 10th seed Sara Errani, the French Open runner-up, needed just seven seconds to complete her 6-1, 6-3 first round win over American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe after the tie had been rained off Tuesday. Errani had been on match point but on the resumption she didn't have to hit a ball as her opponent handed her victory with a double fault. Both players broke down in fits of giggles as they shook hands at the net. Heather Watson ended Britain's 10-year wait to have a woman in the third round as the youngster swept to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over America's Jamie Hampton. "I'm just so pleased to get through that match. It definitely wasn't easy and I knew I had to play my best," 20-year-old Watson said. "She wasn't at her best at the beginning and I tried to take advantage. Then at the end I was telling myself not to double-fault on match point." Kimiko Date-Krumm, at 41 comfortably the oldest player at Wimbledon, crashed out in the first round. The Japanese number one lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 to Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko. Also going out was Slovak 13th seed Dominika Cibulkova, a 6-4, 6-1 loser to Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic. But German 15th seed Sabine Lisicki went through with a 3-6, 6-2, 8-6 win over Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski. Play was then curtailed in the afternoon when steady rain fell, halting action on the outside courts while the roof was closed on Centre Court. Later Wednesday defending champion Novak Djokovic faces Ryan Harrison of the United States while women's top seed Maria Sharapova takes on Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.