AS early evening rain battered away on its translucent roof, Centre Court bore witness to a grapple between two of the last men standing.

While world No.1 Novak Djokovic was principally keen to avoid the kind of shock exit suffered by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, an unknown qualifier by the name of Bobby Reynolds was charged with an altogether more onerous task: single-handedly upholding the national pride of a sporting superpower of 314m people.

With American men abandoning the All England Club this summer in a manner reminiscent of the evacuation of Saigon, defeat for the Cape Cod-born 30-year-old in the heart of Great Gatsby country would have left no US male in the Wimbledon third round for the first time in 101 years. And, in little under two hours on court, such an ignominious fate for the once-proud tennis nation of Don Budge, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras duly came to pass.

Not that Reynolds surrendered the Stars and Stripes without a fight. Indeed, during the first set he appeared to be a clear and present danger, gamely forcing tie-break, the Serb slipping to the turf twice before the lights eventually went out for the man from Massachusetts following a 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat.

Reynolds deserves credit just for staying upright for so long. Having been dogged by a wrist problem, his five-set victory against wild card Steve Johnson in the previous round had been his first at any Grand Slam since the 2008 US Open. But while he had reeled off seven wins on grass this year, Djokovic arrived in SW19 without any competitive action on the surface, a considerable risk considering he lost to Federer in the semi-finals of this tournament last year, as well as to Andy Murray in the last four, then Juan Martin del Potro in the bronze-medal match at the London Olympics.

The Serb had laboured slightly during his first-round win against Florian Mayer and there was more of the same here. He has yet to give up his serve in the entire tournament, but did squander no fewer than 14 of his 18 break points. He explained afterwards that the court had been "dangerous" and revealed he has been spending time in a Buddhist centre in Wimbledon village in order to find his inner calm.

"It is a bit strange that so many top players lost in one or two games," Djokovic said. "But it is a Grand Slam and the lower ranked players have an extra motivation to try their best. My game is there, I just need to capitalise on my opportunities. I played very poorly on the break points but all credit to my opponent. I think I did well even though, with the conditions and the roof closed, it was a bit dangerous at the start."

It wasn't until that first-set breaker, which included conceding a point after an injudicious line call, that things started to go awry for Reynolds. Djokovic saw it out 7-2, broke twice to take the second set, then twice more in the third, leaving the American to carry the can for a nation. "I don't feel like I'm carrying, you know, the US flag as the lone guy left," insisted Reynolds. "I just happened to play the last match."

Remarkably, considering all this pre-tournament talk of a lop-sided draw, Djokovic admitted that his route to the final "looks more or less the same" this morning, with many of the big beasts in the men's game squatting in his section. Del Potro and Tomas Berdych were two giants of the game who managed to beat both the rain and their opponents yesterday with the Argentine, one of just three major winners still involved, happy with his form after dismissing Jesse Levine 6-2, 7-6 (7), 6-3. Meanwhile Berdych, the 2009 finalist, took care of Germany's Daniel Brands 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-2, to set up a third round meeting with another monster, Kevin Anderson, of South Africa.

Richard Gasquet proceeded unmolested and will now face Australia's Bernard Tomic, although Canadian Milos Raonic was not so lucky against Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands. Grigor Dimitrov, despite the support of current squeeze Maria Sharapova, will be serving to stay in the match, 9-8 down in the deciding set against Slovenia's Grega Zemlja, when play resumes today.

A further wrinkle in a crazy week occurred when Michael Llodra forfeited due to injury against Andreas Seppi in the singles, only to record a doubles win with Nicolas Mahut – another apparently injured competitor – when their Czech opponents Jan Hajek and Jaroslav Levinsky withdrew. "I think I have chances to win the doubles," Llodra said. "But not in singles like this. I don't care about money. I have enough in my account."

For all that, there were no major upsets yesterday. The way this tournament has been going, that alone has to go down as something of a shock.