Andre Agassi’s 14th and final Wimbledon fling was ended in brutal fashion by second seed Rafael Nadal on Saturday, the Spaniard winning 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 on a baking hot day on Centre Court. Agassi looked to have gained the upper hand when he led 5-2 in the first set tiebreak, but he threw away the initiative with a couple of costly errors. He dropped serve twice in the second set but re-grouped in the third and kept his nose in front until the seventh game when Nadal’s pressure earned him another service break. There was no way back for Agassi and three games later Nadal ended the contest with an ace to reach the fourth round of the grass court slam for the first time where he will play Irakli Labadze of Georgia. In the women’s singles, defending champion Venus Williams slumped out of Wimbledon in a third round upset, beaten 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 by Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic. Williams looked to be back on track after winning the second set but Jankovic clinched victory on her fourth match point.In another match, Russian Dmitry Tursunov saved a match point in the fourth set tiebreak on his way to a 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 win over fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic. Other important results: Women’s singles: 19-Ana Ivanovic bt 14-Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1; 7-Elena Dementieva bt 25-Elena Likhovtseva 7-5, 6-3; 9-Anastasia Myskina bt 23-Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-4; 4-Maria Sharapova bt Amy Frazier 6-3, 6-2, 1-Amelie Mauresmo bt Nicole Pratt 6-1, 6-2 Men’s singles: 6-Lleyton Hewitt bt 26-Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; 23-David Ferrer bt 10-Fernando Gonzalez 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4Paes-Damm duo in pre-quartersWimbledon: Leander Paes and Martin Damm had a smooth passage to the round of sixteen of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon here today. The Indo-Czech pair defeated Jan Hernych and David Skoch of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. In the boys’ singles, eighth seed Sanam Singh beat Roberto Maytin of Venezuela 6-1, 6-2. Sanaa Bhambri on the other hand was not successful in her campaign in the girls’ singles as she did not survive a tough opener against second seed Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei; bowing out in straight sets 1-6, 2-6. (PTI)
