Weary Agassi capitulates amid errors

The half-hearted appeal to umpire John Frame, the slow gait and the slouched shoulders as he retraced a route to the baseline, betrayed the weary resignation with which Andre Agassi accepted his fate.

The fight had evaporated, the scars more mental than physical. Tommy Haas closed out the match minutes later as his opponent carelessly tossed away a final service game amid a litany of errors.

The 20-year-old Florida resident, born in Germany, punched the air in delight. But the crowed's disappointment was tangible: their idol, the 1992 champion, the naturally-gifted Las Vegan was taking a premature bow.

If public opinion by dint of sheer willpower could have influenced proceedings then the vociferous spectators would have dragged Agassi up by the bootlaces and carried him to victory.

Left to his own devices he was not nearly as effective: as he would later admit it was his inability to avail of chances presented that ultimately cost him victory.

"It's disappointing just because I want to be in this event but I needed to get through the first week here to have a shot. Quite honestly I didn't feel I deserved to win it. I didn't do what I needed to do. Three of the four sets were completely in my hands and that's something that . . . there's a positive in there. But right now it's disappointing."

There was nothing arrogant in his assertion that he, Andre Agassi, had been the author of his own demise.

Resuming at two sets to one down Agassi immediately broke in the opening game as he had done in the first set, but the American tossed back the initiative in the sixth game, when dropping serve on a double fault.

Agassi slipped between the sublime and the slipshod with alarming facility and Haas patiently awaited for his opponent to slip into Jeckyl mode: 67 unforced errors best illustrate the American's frustration. A contributory factor in Agassi's defeat was an outrageously bad call in Wednesday night's tie-break. Trailing 5-3, Haas hit a ball that was at least eight inches long and four inches wide but was somehow missed by two line judges and the umpire.

The Las Vegan diluted his self-recrimination with a swipe at the officials. "I mean it certainly affected the tie-breaker. To say by how much is speculation. If you think about it three people had to miss that call because it was long and wide and nobody overruled it. It was a shocker. I have never experienced that or seen that, that blatantly (sic)."

Haas, ironically a product of Nick Bollettieri, Agassi's former mentor, broke into the world's top 50 last year as a 19-year-old, but despite this latest success, Agassi feels he will not be a Grand Slam contender either at Wimbledon or elsewhere.

"I like Tommy a lot, I really do, he's a good guy and I have known him since he was a youngster, but I don't think so, I really don't.

"He's a talented player, he does a lot of things well but he needs time to really strike the ball effectively. His serve doesn't really separate him. He reminds me of a guy like a Wayne Ferreira, who does a lot of things well but to separate yourself in a Grand Slam arena these days is not easy."

He did venture, though, the man he believes will win Wimbledon.

"If I had to put my money on it right now, I'd probably go with Cracker Jack (Richard Krajicek)." It was fortunate that Agassi had not chosen Carlos Moya, the current French Open champion and number five seed, as the Spaniard was making an inglorious exit against Morrocan Hicham Arazi on centre court.

Moya began in superlative form, and deservedly claimed the first set 6-4. But rain intervened and on the resumption the Spaniard disimproved. Arazzi, a quarter-finalist at the French Open, proved less error prone and won in straight sets. England's Chris Wilkinson broke sedate decibel levels with a three-set victory over former Olympic champion, Marc Rosset, a conqueror of number eight seed Cedric Pioline in the first round.

The cherry on a bad day for the Swiss player was a code violation for an obscene gesture.

While the seeds were being scattered in the men's tournament, those ladies tipped to succeed were enjoying much better progress.

Martina Hingis survived some uncomfortable moments to edge past Russian Elena Makarova but it was the Williams sisters, beads akimbo, that grabbed the headlines.

Younger sibling Serena demolished the talented but erratic Mirjana Lucic 6-3, 6-0 and then watched Venus not only thrash Barbara Schett 6-1, 6-2 but in the process break the world record for a serve when crashing the ball down at a staggering 125 m.p.h, breaking Brenda Schultz McCarthy's mark of 122. Greg Rusedski holds the men's equivalent at 149 mph.

"It comes as a real surprise. I was not going for any big ones today. I barely hit any - eight at most," said Williams.

The Williams' victories set up an intriguing quarter-final clash which would find them in opposition, assuming that they both win one more match.

Jennifer Capriati's Wimbledon odyssey petered out ignominiously when a plethora of mistakes allowed one time Wimbledon semi-finalist and the oldest woman in the tournament Lori McNeill to win in three sets.