Title favourite Roger Federer eased through to the second round but James Blake's miserable Wimbledon record continued as he crashed out today.

The 17th seed, who has failed to make it past the third round in six previous appearances at the All England Club, was beaten 7-5 6-4 7-6 (7/5) by Italy's Andreas Seppi on Court Three.

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Blake would have expected better having reached the final at Queen's Club and he was at a loss to explain his poor showings at Wimbledon.

"I was playing pretty well at Queen's, I thought I had a good chance to do well here," Blake said.

"This has probably been my worst slam and I don't understand why. I just didn't feel like myself out there today. Andreas played well when he had to and I didn't."

Following top seed Rafael Nadal's withdrawal on Friday because of tendinitis in his knees, Blake also took the opportunity to hit out at the packed nature of the international tennis schedule.

"When we're playing slams, it's three out of five (sets) but we get a day off in between. You're able to rest," Blake continued.

"(In) Masters Series you're playing two of three (sets) but you're playing six matches in seven days. That's pretty rough, especially for someone like him [Nadal] that's generally in the semis or finals of those tournaments.

"Playing eight of those that you have to play a year, four grand slams, four (ATP Tour) 500s, you're already at 16 tournaments, four of them two-week tournaments.

"That's a lot of tennis for a guy that's winning so much. I know I'm probably not supposed to say anything about the schedule or about the ATP in that way, but it's just tough for guys."

Spaniard Feliciano Lopez was another casualty in the first round, the 21st seed losing 1-6 7-5 6-3 4-6 10-8 to Slovakia's Karol Beck in a marathon match on Court 18.

Federer, the highest seed following Nadal's withdrawal, got off to a rather slow start in his first match on grass this year but upped his game to see off Yen-Hsun Lu 7-5 6-2 6-3.

The Swiss star, who will play Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two, said: "That was a tough first set. He's beaten some good players and I knew the danger."

Thirteenth seed Robin Soderling, beaten by Federer in the final of the French Open two weeks ago, lost the first set of his match against Luxembourg's Gilles Muller before triumphing 6-7 (4/7) 7-5 6-1 6-2.

Another seed taken to four sets was France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the ninth seed, who eventually battled past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5) in a match lasting more than three hours.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 27th seed, had an easier time of it, beating Florent Serra 7-6 (7/3) 6-1 6-4, while 28th seed Mardy Fish was leading Sergio Roitman 6-3 6-2 4-1 when the Argentinian retired.

The tightest match of the day was out on Court 13 where Spain's Nicolas Almagro beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-7 (3/7) 6-7 (7/9) 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 8-6.

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Italy's Simone Bolelli also hit back from two sets down to triumph 6-7 (2/7) 2-6 7-5 6-4 6-4 against Daniel Koellerer.

Exciting Serbian Janko Tipsarevic reached round two with a 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7/4) win over Czech Jan Hernych while 34-year-old Vince Spadea won his first match at Wimbledon since reaching the fourth round in 2004, beating Paul Capdeville 6-0 6-4 7-5.

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