Rochus the tiny Belgian drives Safin the giant off his rocker

Marat Safin's first major title since winning the US Open two years ago looks likely to be that of the Clown Prince. The man who leads the ATP Champions race is also one of the tour's most enigmatic under-achievers and the No2 seed fretted and fumbled his way out of Wimbledon's second round yesterday, beaten by a man 62 places lower in the rankings and 11in shorter.

That was Olivier Rochus, a 5ft 5in bundle of tenacity and humour who claims that his ambition was always to grow tall. After beating the world No2 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 there were moments when it seemed he might still do so.

Rochus, 21, also downed the third-seeded Magnus Norman last year and knew from his five-set defeat by Safin at last month's French Open that chances for another upset might present themselves.

Within six games yesterday Safin had dropped serve, dropped his racket and raised both arms to the skies. Soon he had completed a wide enough range of gestures for a tic-tac man communicating the odds against him winning. There was arm swinging, racket bouncing, head swaying and even one enormous bellow which frightened the pigeons.

When Safin double-faulted to drop serve again in the second set he slammed a ball violently into the net and, when he missed a shot to go 5-3 down, he threatened to demolish it with the force of his avenging blow upon the ball.

In between he produced moments of supreme skill, including one rally won with a shot played through his legs and a full-length diving stop-volley which Boris Becker could not have bettered. There were snorting forehands and 21 aces.

"I knew I had to stay focused and play every point because some games he may give me because he is crazy," said Rochus, who beat his elder brother Christophe on Monday. "That was the worst draw ever," he said. "Now I am maybe the happiest man in earth."

Rochus now meets the Frenchman Arnaud Clément, who beat the No26 seed Todd Martin 6-3, 6-4, 7-6. Two other seeds followed the American - the Australian Open semi-finalist Jiri Novak and its former runner-up Thomas Enqvist.

Novak lost 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to Wayne Arthurs, the Australian with the English mother and Irish father, and Enqvist lost to Mark Philippoussis. The Australian wild card, who was told his career was over after three operations on a knee he injured while leading Pete Sampras in the 1999 quarter-finals here, won 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. He pounded out 30 aces and claimed he was fully fit.

Another seed to exit was the rising American James Blake, rated 29th. He appeared to be making a sensational comeback from two sets down against Richard Krajicek but could get only within two points of beating the 1996 Wimbledon champion. The Dutchman, in his second match in 17 months after recovering from an elbow injury, served 32 aces and took 3hr 7min to survive 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 11-9.