Casper Ruud suffered a surprise second-round exit at Wimbledon on Wednesday as another seed was eliminated early on at the grass-court major.

The eighth seed was outsmarted on No.2 Court as Fabio Fognini scored a 6-4 7-5 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 win to send Ruud home from the All England Club.

World number 94 Fognini cut a calm figure throughout, manipulating his opponent from the baseline before snapping past Ruud with ease at regular intervals.

The victory saw Fognini through to his seventh third-round appearance in 14 attempts at Wimbledon, where he next faces Robert Bautista Agut after the Spaniard downed Lorenzo Sonego on the same day.

"Maybe 14 is the lucky one," Fognini said during his on-court interview. "I was 5-2 up and the match was almost done but then at 5-4 too many things were coming into my head.

"But this is why I love and hate this sport. In the end he's top 10 and I'm 37 and today was a good present for me."

Ruud joined sixth seed Andrey Rublev as a surprise early elimination, and Tommy Paul was fortunate to escape a similar upset on No.3 Court.

The 12th-seed American moved into the third round by overcoming Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen 4-6 6-3 5-7 7-5 6-4.

Paul will face Alexander Bublik in his next outing.

Data Debrief: Fognini proves age is no issue

Fognini, aged 37 years and 40 days, is the third player aged 37 or older to defeat an ATP top-10 player in a men's singles major event.

The Italian joined Ken Rosewall and Roger Federer as the only players to achieve the feat as Ruud's struggles on grass continued.