Courier pays for gruelling shoot

A fitting start at high noon yesterday in Wimbledon saw Jim Courier come through the most extraordinary shoot out of the day against Holland's Sjeng Schalken. Courier saved two match points in the fourth and fifth sets to finally win his third round match 13-11 in a final set which lasted 97 minutes.

Courier was still cracking the ball on court three when beside him on court two had seen Kournikova beat Gorrochategui, Philippoussis knock out Clavet and Williams dispose of Pitkowski. Four hours and 19 minutes after starting, Courier emerged exhausted, unable to give a press conference. He subsequently informed the Wimbledon organisers that he had been put on a drip suffering dehydration.

It leaves Courier splendidly isolated in the top half of the draw as the lone slugger amongst the big servers; Pete Sampras, Mark Philippoussis, Karol Kucera, Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman, his next opponent.

Henman competently kept British hopes alive with a four set win over Sebastien Grosjean to set up the Courier tie in what is certain to be a contrast of styles: Courier the counter puncher and Henman the serve and volleyer with the enormous home support.

"I saw him (Courier) in the locker-room and heard that he won 13-11 in the fifth, saved a match point in the fourth and fifth," Henman said. "That's when the going gets tough. He seems to pull through those matches and that's the sign of a great player. I'm personally looking forward to it (their clash). "He's going to be spending the majority of the time on the baseline and I'm going to be trying to get forward as much as possible. He's a big match player. I think that's the best way to put it. I think it's fair to say it's why I've practised, to play on the Centre Court of Wimbledon in these type of matches and I'm sure it's similar for him," he said.

Sampras, as expected, made short work of Britain's Danny Sapsford who had already predicted his own downfall by comparing his chances with the second coming of Christ. He wasn't proven wrong, Sampras winning 6-3 6-4 7-5.

"I can't complain the way the week has gone," said Sampras. "I haven't felt threatened in any of my matches and it wasn't easy playing Danny. The competition gets tougher and tougher, but I feel ready to go.

"I look at Wimbledon as the biggest tournament in the world. It's our Superbowl and I come with that attitude."

The five time champion now faces the unseeded Canadian Daniel Nestor in what should also prove to be an easy win for Sampras. Nestor relies heavily on his big left-handed serve but the problem for Nestor is what Sapsford spoke about. Just who will be able to break the Sampras serve?

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the number three seed, retired from his match against Frenchman Cedric Pioline with a damaged hamstring. Kafelnikov's indifferent form seemed to spawn an equally indifferent public response as he withdrew from the championship with the score at 6-3 4-6 0-1.

"It's very disappointing because I had a good chance of going a long way in the tournament," he said. "But I think I made the correct decision to retire. There was no point in continuing. It's just one of those things."

The Russian's hamstring was hardly helped by his marathon matches in the first two rounds, a long five setter followed by an equally sapping four setter.

Rusedski, swinging his left arm in typical thunderous fashion, finished off Sweden's Magnus Norman before bad light stopped the match. Taking the first two sets 63 6-4, Rusedski continued to dominate to win the final set 7-5. The number nine seed now faces his biggest challenge of the competition in the shape of Philippoussis, the Australian seventh seed, for a place in the quarter-finals.