Sherwood chopped down by Lopez

Last updated at 14:22 22 June 2005

Yorkshireman David Sherwood wilted in the Wimbledon sunshine today as he was soundly beaten by Feliciano Lopez. The Spaniard needed just 79 minutes to wrap up a 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory.

The 25-year-old Sherwood, who achieved the best result of his career with his straight sets win over Brazilian Ricardo Mello on the opening day, lost the first set 6-2 to Feliciano Lopez, the 26th seed.

Sherwood showed signs of nerves when he missed an easy volley in the opening game and he quickly found himself 4-0 down against the highly-talented Spaniard.

The clay court specialist, feeling at home in the hot conditions, was clearly comfortable on grass and two delicate drop shots in the third game demonstrated his versatility.

Sherwood stopped the rot by twice holding onto his serve but he could not prevent Lopez wrapping up the first set in just 21 minutes.

The match developed into a battle of the big servers in the second set.

Lopez came up with a 134mph ace in the fourth game but the 6ft 4in Sherwood produced some booming deliveries of his own to keep the set in the balance.

It went with serve until Sherwood came up with a string of careless errors in the seventh game.

Lopez achieved the decisive break and consolidated by serving out of the set, which he won 6-4.

There was no way back for the Englishman once he dropped his serve in the first game of the third set.

There was a brief rally when the British number eight got within a point of breaking his opponent in the fourth game but Sherwood lacked the consistency to cause serious problems.

Lopez broke again to lead 4-1 and served out to complete the easiest of victories.

The Spaniard took three hours and 33 minutes to see off Bjorn Phau in the first round but needed just 79 minutes to wrap up a 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory and he will now play Mark Philippoussis or Marat Safin in the third round.