Super Mario clears big hurdle

The 24-year-old Ancic, a semi-finalist in 2004, has now reached the quarter-finals three times but missed the tournament last year and was out for nearly six months with glandular fever. The unseeded Ancic looked down and out when Verdasco, the number 22 seed, led two sets to one and 4-1 in the fourth, only to fight his way back into a match that lasted three hours and 48 minutes on Court 11.

8220;The match8230; was unbelievable, dramatic,8221; Ancic told reporters. 8220;I felt after the second set I had done nothing wrong but I was two sets down.8221;

Ancic settled the match after breaking his opponent in the 13th game of the deciding set. Verdasco, 40-0 down on Ancic8217;s serve, fended off two match points before the Croat won with an ace. 8220;Wimbledon means a lot to me, maybe even more because I missed last year,8221; Ancic said. 8220;If I think where I was a year ago, I feel like I8217;m a winner whatever happens.8221;

Near faultless

VERDASCO played near faultless tennis in the first two sets, finding the corners consistently and hitting some fierce passing shots that had the Croat reeling.

Ancic struggled for consistency at first but finally earned his first break points in the sixth game of the third set, Verdasco hitting a return wide on the first.

Verdasco looked to have made an all-important breakthrough when a brilliant lob put him 40-love up on Ancic8217;s serve in the fourth game of the fourth set, taking a 4-1 lead with a passing shot.

Ancic, however, raised his game to break Verdasco in the left-handed Spaniard8217;s next two service games before going on to level the match with an ace.

The gruelling fifth set went with serve until the 13th game when Ancic broke the Spaniard, who hit the break point long. Verdasco broke right back and the next break point, which Ancic won to go 12-11 ahead, proved decisive. The Spaniard saved the first two of three match points before succumbing to an ace.

Roger Federer swept Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 7, 6-2, 6-4 on Centre Court. After a tight first set, Federer broke Hewitt in the opening game of the second set and breezed to a 4-0 lead.

Jankovic out

Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova were ousted in the fourth round on Monday, leaving Wimbledon without any of the top four women in the quarter-finals for the first time ever. A hobbling Jankovic fell 6-3, 6-2 to Tamarine Tanasugarn, while 2004 US Open champion Kuznetsova lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to 19-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

8220;Can I say, wow, wow, wow,8221; said Tanasugarn, the oldest player left in the women8217;s field at 31. She had said last week that she would be happy just to make the fourth round in her 12th consecutive appearance at the All England Club.

8220;This year it8217;s the only year that I didn8217;t really want to go to the quarter-finals,8221; Tanasugarn said.

The highest seeded player left is No. 5 Elena Dementieva, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Shahar Peer.

The Williams sisters, meanwhile, moved closer to another Wimbledon final with back-to-back victories on Court 2.

Defending champion Venus Williams beat Russian teenager Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-4, while two-time winner Serena downed Bethanie Mattek 6-3, 6-3.

No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal overcame an injury scare in the second game of the match and beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. Also advancing was Chinese wild-card entry Zheng Jie, who beat 19-year-old Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-3, 6-4. Other women8217;s winners were Nicole Vaidisova, who downed No. 8 Anna Chakvetadze 4-6, 7-6 0, 6-3; and Nadia Petrova, a 6-1, 6-4 victor over Alla Kudryavtseva.

Spaniard Feliciano Lopez saved three match points before outlasting Cypriot number 10 seed Marcos Baghdatis 5-7 6-2 3-6 7-6 8-6 to reach the quarter-finals.