Mauresmo146;s reign ends

Amelie Mauresmo could not get off Centre Court quick enough today when her reign as Wimbledon champion came to an inglorious end.

Amelie Mauresmo could not get off Centre Court quick enough today when her reign as Wimbledon champion came to an inglorious end. The French suffered meltdown against 18-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova, ending her 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 defeat with two careless sliced backhand errors more in keeping with the hackers on the local municipal courts.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic followed Mauresmo when Marion Bartoli profited from some sloppy strokes to dismiss her 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a match interrupted four times by rain.

The Serb has been one of the most consistent players this year and last month reached the French Open semi-finals, but against the French 18th seed she seemed to lack conviction at the net and repeatedly struggled to hold serve.

The day after a hobbling Serena Williams screamed, cried and snarled her way to a remarkable fourth round victory over Daniela Hantuchova, Mauresmo capitulated in startling fashion.

After three rain interruptions, the red mist had already descended by the time she thrashed a ball way to the far flung corners of the All England Club after yet another fluffed volley at the start of the final game. It is the first time in five appearances that the 27-year-old has failed to reach at least the semi-finals here.

Harsh critics will raise questions once again about her fragile temperament, although a fairer appraisal would be that she simply had a bad day at the office after cruising through the first week. 8220;Everything went wrong today,8221; said Mauresmo, who served 14 double faults. 8220;It was a shitty match.8221;

Even umpire Kim Craven also had an undistinguished day. At the start of the second set he forgot who was serving and from what end and eventually had to be helped out by a ballboy.

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At least Vaidisova kept her wits about her. She was the better player for most of a scrappy contest, coming back from 6-3 down to win the opening set tie-breaker. She then kept her focus in the third set to reach her first Wimbledon quarter final as Mauresmo fell to pieces.

In a fourth round match that should have been played on Monday, Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova left nothing to chance with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Austrian 16-year-old Tamira Paszek.

With heavy showers continuing to blight this year8217;s championships, only three matches had been completed by mid-afternoon despite play starting again at 11am local time to try and clear a mounting backlog.

Spain8217;s Juan Carlos Ferrero was in a hurry. The 20th seed seized his chance to reach the quarter-finals here for the first time with a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 defeat of Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.

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In a rain-affected match, 16th seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia defeated 22nd seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Sixth seed Nicolay Davydenko of Russia had it easy against French Gael Monfils 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.

The former world number one will now face Roger Federer, who has serenely sat out the last few rain-dashed days after being handed a walkover by the injured Tommy Haas. Worryingly for the organisers, who yesterday defended their decision not to play on the middle Sunday, three men8217;s third-round matches are still to be completed.

Sania, Shahar duo reaches third round

wimbledon: Sania Mirza and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer had to wait for a day, as rain suspended their match yesterday, to advance to the third round of the women8217;s doubles of the Wimbledon Grand Slam. Resuming against Agnes Szavay of Hungary and Vladimira Uhlirova of Czech Republic at 6-4, 4-3 40-40, the 16th seeds Sania and Shahar won the match easily at 6-4, 6-3, not allowing their unseeded opponents to win a game today.

The duo next face top seeds Lisa Raymond of the USa and Samantha Stosur of Australia.