Bogdanovic rises above station

Britain's Alex Bogdanovic produced a superb performance here yesterday to beat Joachim Johansson, of Sweden, and secure a place in the second round.

Britain's Alex Bogdanovic produced a superb performance here yesterday to beat Joachim Johansson, of Sweden, and secure a place in the second round.

Bogdanovic, who came through qualifying, looked in danger of losing the first set when he trailed 4-2 in the tie-break against his 6ft 6in opponent. But the world No 307 produced a superb forehand winner to get back in contention and took the next three points as well before taking his second set point with a textbook serve and volley.

Bogdanovic, who has had his LTA funding withdrawn after questions were raised about his commitment, threatened to race away with the second set as he stormed into a 5-1 lead and served for the match at 5-2. But Johansson, ranked 45th in the world, refused to give in and broke back to reduce his deficit, but Bogdanovic held his nerve at the second time of asking to serve out for a 7-6, 6-4 victory in 75 minutes.

Earlier, Bogdanovic's compatriot Lee Childs was beaten by Hicham Arazi on centre court, 6-3, 6-3.

Childs got off to the perfect start when he broke Arazi's serve in the opening game of the match and saved a break point in the next to establish a 2-0 lead. But it was all downhill from there as a string of unforced errors handed the match to the world No 35 from Morocco.

Jan-Michael Gambill, of the United States, and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman eased into the second round with straight-sets victories over Wesley Moodie and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi respectively.

The second seed, Mardy Fish, has withdrawn from the tournament with a hip injury.

Results, Digest, page 48