Juan Martin del Potro admitted he felt "alive again" after the injury-plagued former US Open champion sent Swiss fourth seed Stan Wawrinka crashing out of a wet and wild Wimbledon Friday. On a day when rain caused a 10th delay of the week, forcing organizers to consider playing on the middle Sunday for the first time since 2004, the giant Del Potro shone beneath the Centre Court roof. Playing in his first Grand Slam tournament since the 2014 Australian Open, his 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 second round victory over Wawrinka brought back memories of his stunning 2009 US Open win before a series of wrist injuries pushed him to the brink of retirement. The world No. 165 from Argentina, who was a semifinalist in 2013 in what was his last appearance at Wimbledon, next faces French 32nd seed Lucas Pouille. Defending champion Serena Williams survived a major scare from US compatriot Christina McHale. The world No. 1 came from behind to defeat McHale 6-7 (7/9), 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 29 minutes on Centre Court, narrowly avoiding what would have been her earliest-ever Wimbledon defeat. Williams will face Germany's Annika Beck for a place in the last-16. Meanwhile, Wimbledon suffered a third day of rain delays. Only one minute of action was possible on the outside courts in the first four hours. The tournament already had a backlog of 16 second round ties and with more rain expected Saturday, organizers admitted that play may take place Sunday for the first time since 2004 and only the third time overall. "Sunday play is being considered but a decision won't be made until tomorrow," a spokesman said. All men's second round doubles matches were reduced to best of three sets rather than five in an effort to get the tournament back on the schedule. Czech 10th seed Tomas Berdych beat Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 and French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got past Juan Monaco 6-1, 6-4, 6-3, in the second round. Five-time champion Venus Williams reached the last-16, seeing off Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 in a tie featuring a rain stoppage when she held match point. Williams, 36, was 7-6, 40-30 up on Kasatkina's serve in the final set on Court One when the tie was halted by the second rain delay of the day. Seventy-five minutes later, the players returned with Wimbledon debutante Kasatkina saving the match point, the second of the day. But Williams eventually triumphed at the third time of asking when the 19-year-old dumped a forehand into the net. Nick Kyrgios survived a warning for bad language and a third set sulk to clinch a 6-7 (3/7), 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Dustin Brown in an explosive second round clash. On Thursday, unseeded Czech Jiri Vesely won a battle of the tiebreaks to sink Austrian eighth seed Dominic Thiem in three tough sets in the second round. In a pulsating 2-3/4-hour encounter during which both players successfully varied their game, punctuating long baseline rallies with bouts of serve-and-volley and the occasional dropshot, the pressure of holding a misfiring serve eventually told on Thiem. He conceded all three of the decisive points in Vesely's 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 7-6(3) win on forehand errors — having earlier passed up three break points in the 11th game of the first set. The Czech will play Portuguese 31st seed Joao Sousa in the third round. Eugenie Bouchard reminded a Centre Court crowd why not long ago she was being billed as tennis's new golden girl when she crushed the Wimbledon hopes of Britain's 16th seed Johanna Konta Thursday. Bouchard made a mockery of her world ranking of 48 to win 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 and set up a third-round clash with Slovakia's 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova. Serbia's Viktor Troicki made his case for the greatest Wimbledon rant of modern times as he slipped to a five-set defeat to Spain's Albert Ramos Vinolas. Infuriated that umpire Damiano Torella had over-ruled a Vinolas serve which was called out to declare it an ace, Troicki unleashed a tirade of abuse at the Italian official. "You're the worst umpire in the world, you're so bad," screamed Troicki as he went match point down and he continued in the same vein when the match concluded. "You're horrible, you know what you did. You are an idiot."
