Former Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade has said that the highest seed to go out of the Australian Open, Argentine star David Nalbandian, was a victim of peaking too early.
Join Peter Fleming, Annabel Croft and Virginia Wade in the studio for more live coverage from Melbourne on Wednesday. Watch the action on British Eurosport - available in the UK on Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media channel 521 - from 8.15am.
The 10th seed, ranked 11 in the world, lost in five sets to number 61 Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in the second round in Melbourne.
It is the first time Lu has reached the third round of a Grand Slam.
"When I heard that Nalbandian won the pre-Open Sydney tournament I feared for him: the top players always have reservations about going full pelt at a tournament in the week before," Wade told Eurosport.
"You want to get enough matches in the build-up, but not waste your emotional energy.
"It was the first time I've watched Lu play, but boy did he serve well out to the left court.
"You get so used to seeing Nalbandian struggle in long matches, but finding a way to get through, that it was a surprise when he went out."
Former British number one Greg Rusedski said that Lu will have to play brilliantly again to get past his next opponent Tommy Robredo.
"It's a shock because Nalbandian was playing well prior to this event and looking confident - he will be very disappointed," he said. "Let's give credit to the winner though: he took it on, was aggressive and flashy, and now he's in the top 50 - so well done.
"The Eastern press are looking for Asian players to come through so he'll have a lot of support. Nalbandian was up two sets to one and this guy looks like the real deal coming through to win in five sets.
"He's going to have to play as well as he did against Nalbandian to get through because Robredo is that little bit more solid; he will need to come forward and attack."
The most mouth-watering match-up of the third round is undoubtedly world number two Roger Federer against giant Russian Marat Safin, who saved match point against the Swiss in the semi-finals in 2005 on his way to the title.
Federer downed Evgeny Korolev easily in the second round.
"Federer lost concentration in his first-round match, but this one was an impressive performance in straight sets," Rusedski said.
"He did what he had to: he knows he's got a difficult opponent coming up in the third round."
Rusedski is not convinced that Andy Roddick can challenge for the title in Australia, but believes the American could get to the semi-finals.
"He could get to the semi possibly because Novak Djokovic is not playing so well and they are set to meet in the quarters," he continued.
"I'd like to see Roddick on top of that baseline like Jimmy Connors got him doing, taking that backhand earlier. He's lost a little bit of pace on his serve after his shoulder problems last summer.
"I think Fabrice Santoro ran out of gas after his mammoth match: I don't think there'll be any problems for Andy Roddick."
Wade warned that Santoro may not be such a pushover.
"His next match will be great because Fabrice Santoro is so fascinating: watching the guy on the other side of the net becoming so completely befuddled by him (especially)," she said.
"That's what happened to Philipp Kohlschreiber: we know what a good player he is, but he couldn't find an answer to Santoro.
"Roddick still struggles when he gets to the net: he's so anxious to get there he's got his chest out in front and that makes him react slowly to the ball."
Wade also expressed concerns about Ana Ivanovic, who beat Alberta Brianti to set up a third-round clash with Alisa Kleybanova.
"Ana is building it up but still has a long way to go in her own mind before she feels she is at the level she was last year - when she played so well and won the French," Wade opined.
"If anything starts to go wrong, she shatters; and she's got a tough draw there."
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