Agassi and Williams kiss Wimbledon goodbye

With blown kisses and a sad smile, Andre Agassi bade Wimbledon farewell yesterday after losing to a ruthless Rafael Nadal in the third round. The 36-year-old's defeat was no great surprise, unlike that of another American, Venus Williams. The women's champion lost in three sets to Serbian Jelena Jankovic in the biggest shock of the tournament so far.

Double French Open champion Nadal made no allowance for sentiment in a 7-6 6-2 6-4 victory on the Centre Court where Agassi won the first of his eight grand slam titles 14 years ago.

The Las Vegan retires from tennis after the US Open and he said: "To say goodbye, for me, this means as much as winning."

Jankovic, the 26th seed, reached the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time with a 7-6 4-6 6-4 victory over three-times champion Williams on court two.

Agassi, one of only five men to have won all four grand slam events in his career, tried everything to prolong his final visit to the All England Club. Time has caught up with him, though, and he could not contain 20-year-old Nadal's groundstrokes.

On a scorching day in London men's fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic and number 10 Fernando Gonzalez both suffered five-set defeats.

Russian Dmitry Tursunov recovered to win from two sets down for the first time in his career when he upset Ljubicic 5-7 4-6 6-1 7-6 6-2.

Seventh seed Mario Ancic kept Croatian interest alive when he completed a four-set win over Stanislas Wawrinka in a match that started on Centre Court on Friday and finished on court one yesterday.

Spain's David Ferrer reached his first Wimbledon fourth round when he too fought back from two sets down to beat Gonzalez 4-6 2-6 6-2 6-3 6-4.

Ferrer next faces Australian sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion who swept through with a 6-1 6-4 6-4 defeat of Belgian Olivier Rochus.

Top seed Amelie Mauresmo and Russia's Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion, are yet to drop a set after easy wins yesterday.

Mauresmo demolished 33-year-old Nicole Pratt 6-1 6-2 and Sharapova was an assured 6-3 6-2 winner over Amy Frazier.

Murray stuns Roddick

Andy Murray rode a wave of British fervour to knock out twice runner-up Andy Roddick 7-6 6-4 6-4 in the third round yesterday evening.

While the result kept alive Murray's dreams of becoming the first Briton in 70 years to win the Wimbledon men's crown, third seed Roddick's exit ended the American challenge in the men's draw.