Wimbledon: Nishikori survives Benneteau scare; Cilic, Dimitrov win in 4 sets

Japan's Kei Nishikori survived an early scare before he dispatched buccaneering Frenchman Julien Benneteau 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 in the Wimbledon second round on Thursday.

The Centre Court crowd scented an upset when Benneteau came out all guns blazing, catching the fifth seed cold with a succession of blistering groundstrokes and artful drop shots.

But after losing the first set, Nishikori - wearing strapping to protect a rib injury - gradually found his range and asserted his authority, pushing Benneteau back with relentlessly accurate drives on both wings.

With the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke of Kent watching from the Royal Box, the 26-year-old produced a suitably aristocratic performance to book his place in the third round.

Benneteau, 34, might be encouraged by the fact he stretched one of the game's elite players in the early stages. He has sought to revive his career after a hernia injury and surgery ruled him out for much of last season and his ranking plunged from 25 to 547. 

Cilic powers past Stakhovsky in four sets

Ninth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic unleashed 22 aces and 62 winners in his second-round win at Wimbledon on Thursday, bundling out unseeded Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2 6-7(6) 6-4 6-4 in just under three hours of hard-hitting tennis.

Cilic, who won the 2014 U.S. Open and equalled his best All England Club result last year by reaching the quarter-finals, sailed through the first set with two breaks of serve.

The 94th-ranked Ukrainian took the second set on a tiebreak when Cilic's radar went awry in two consecutive baseline rallies. But the Croatian, who lost in three sets to world number two Andy Murray in the semi-final of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's Club, was relatively untroubled thereafter, sealing victory with a service game to love.

Cilic next plays 120th-ranked Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko who tamed big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic. 

Dimitrov emerges from slump to knock out Simon

Grigor Dimitrov announced his return to form on Thursday, putting out 16th seed Gilles Simon 6-3 7-6(1) 3-6 6-4 with an exhibition of power, speed and deft touch in the second round at Wimbledon.

The 25-year-old Bulgarian has suffered a slump since he reached a career-high ranking of nine in 2014, the year he beat defending champion Andy Murray to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals. But now ranked 37th, his opponents knew that he was the dangerous floater in the draw and so it proved for Simon, who has a fine record on grass, having beaten Dimitrov in their last two matches on the surface. He led the Bulgarian 5-1 head-to head going into the match.

It was not all plain sailing for the inconsistent Dimitrov, who after allowing Simon only one point in the second-set tiebreak struggled again to keep his mind on the match. "I lost my focus a little bit," he said. "All of a sudden I got drawn into his rhythm... he's a pretty mellow fellow...I'm just glad I got it back."

Dimitrov was dubbed "Baby Fed" when he came on to the circuit because of his all-round skill and easy-on-the-eye athleticism. After losing the third set and going a break down in the fourth, however, it took him until the eighth game to regain the steely mindset enjoyed by seven-times champion Roger Federer.

Ramping up the pressure and finding that extra measure of creativity, he broke Simon's served twice in a row to win the match that had started on Wednesday evening. He meets Steve Johnson of the United States in the third round.