Jimmy Wang, the only Taiwanese player to make it into the second round of the singles competitions at Wimbledon, lost in four sets to Jonas Bjorkman on Thursday.
At one point it looked as if his Swedish opponent was going to brush him aside in next to no time.
Wang lost the first set 6-0, the second 6-3 and found himself 5-3 down in the third. However, he fought back to win a tie-break 10-8 before Bjorkman took the fourth set 6-4 to claim the match.
Wang's 41 unforced errors cost him dear. In contrast, Bjorkman only made 22, also hitting 43 winners compared to Wang's 32.
Bjorkman faces Australian Wayne Arthurs in the third round.
Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung fared better in the women's doubles competition, overcoming Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in straight sets. The Taiwanese pair, seeded three, won their first round match 7-6, 6-4. They were given a good workout by a pair whose singles rankings of six and 12 respectively suggested they would be no pushovers.
The Taiwanese duo, taking part in their first Wimbledon doubles tournament, next face Emma Laine of Finland and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.
Chan and Chuang will be looking to go one better in London than their previous best Grand Slam performance this year when they finished runners-up at the Australian Open in January.
Meanwhile Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei and Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva lost their women's doubles match to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
Federer competed for all of 11 minutes on Thursday. That was enough to finish off Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 for the Swiss star's 50th consecutive victory on grass, in a match suspended overnight.
"Fifty is a great number to achieve," Federer said. "I'm delighted about that, but I haven't won the tournament."
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