Wimbledon 2013: David Ferrer reaches third round

Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer was forced to dig deep to reach the third round of Wimbledon.

Ferrer, 31, beat compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 and faces Alexandr Dolgopolov next.

Jurgen Melzer ended the run of Roger Federer's conqueror, Sergiy Stakhovsky, with a 6-2 2-6 7-5 6-3 third-round win.

At the same stage, Nicolas Almagro, the highest seed aside from Andy Murray in the bottom half of the draw, was beaten by Poland's Jerzy Janowicz.

Spaniard Almagro, the 15th seed, went down 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-4 to 24th seed Janowicz.

The 22-year-old Pole told BBC Sport: "This is my best result in a Grand Slam. This was the first time I played at Centre Court so I'm so happy.

"The delayed start affected me, I was broken early in the first set. I was nervous, but I was able to come back."

With Murray defeating Tommy Robredo, the only other man to reach the fourth round was France's Adrian Mannarino, who enjoyed a straight-sets win over German Dustin Brown, who defeated former champion Lleyton Hewitt in round two.

Rain on Thursday meant Ferrer's second-round match was among those delayed until Friday.

The French Open finalist and the big-hitting Bautista Agut exchanged early breaks, however Ferrer secured a second break en route to taking a fiercely contested first set in 43 minutes.

His opponent responded and broke for 5-3 after a Ferrer double fault before levelling the match.

It took a tie-break to settle a topsy-turvy third set in which both players failed to dominate the serve, with Ferrer eventually coming through victorious, and he wrapped up the victory following a break in the 11th game of the fourth set.

He told BBC Sport: "I'm happy to have got the match finished. It was a tough match, he is a very good player and it was close.

"I feel better than I did at the beginning of the week. I'm improving my game. Dolgopolov's a very good talent, I will need to play solid and consistently like I did today."

Dolgopolov, the 26th seed, advanced to round three by beating Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-4 7-5 6-3, while 35-year-old 13th seed Tommy Haas beat qualifier Jimmy Wang in straight sets.

Jeremy Chardy became the fifth Frenchman to reach the third round with a four-set win over German Jan-Lennard Struff, the 28th seed facing world number one Novak Djokovic next.