Safin slumps to Rochus

Safin could not believe his poor form

Olivier Rochus beat Marat Safin 6-2 6-4 3-6 7-6

Second seed Marat Safin became the biggest casualty of the men's singles as he was dumped out of Wimbledon by diminutive Belgian Olivier Rochus.

The unseeded Rochus, who at 5ft 5ins is nearly a foot shorter than the Russian giant, played an almost flawless match to overcome the former US Open champion in four sets.

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Safin came into the championships on the back of winning the Liverpool International event, confident of improving on last year's quarter-final showing.

Those hopes appeared to be justified with a convincing first-round victory over former finalist Cedric Pioline, despite his stated dislike for grass.

Rochus was in inspired form throughout

But he double-faulted twice to lose the opening game against Rochus and a total of 46 unforced errors unhinged his title hopes in front of a shocked but enthralled Centre Court crowd.

Safin, losing finalist at this year's Australian Open and a semi-finalist at the French Open, where he beat Rochus, has been a consistent performer on this year's tour.

But his poor form continued in the second set as he dropped his serve to go 3-2 down and had no answer to the world number 64's own service.

Growing stature

At one point Safin fluffed a simple volley and then belted the ball at the net in frustration from point-blank range.

Rochus, who put out his elder brother, Christophe, in the first round, has declared his childhood ambition was "to be tall".

And although Safin rallied to take the third set, breaking Rochus in the eighth game, the Belgian's growing stature in SW19 was confirmed in the fourth set.

He saved two break points in his second service game, and another in the ninth game, before prevailing 7-1 in a one-sided tie-break as Safin's game fell apart.

Rochus, 21, has now matched his best-ever performance at a Grand Slam event. He will meet Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the third round.