She was here at the All England Club yesterday, looking relaxed despite her singles exit, and at ease enough to stand for 20 minutes in the shade of the press centre while talking happily on her mobile and simultaneously sending an e-mail.. Andre Agassi has never exactly been a behemoth of the courts. The era of the Williams sisters’ dominance at Wimbledon is over, perhaps for good, but the Williams conundrum rumbles on. With Venus, the defending champion, crashing out to Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic on Saturday in the third round, there will be no Williams representative in the women’s final here for the first time since 1999. The 19-year-old Scot won 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two and a half hours with a display of brilliant and inventive tennis, underlining all the promise he has shown since bursting on to the international stage 12 months ago.. When Andy Murray set out on his Wimbledon campaign last week he refused to look beyond his first-round match against Nicolas Massu, the Olympic champion.

The British No 2 will still take one match at a time, starting with his fourth-round encounter this afternoon with Marcos Baghdatis, but after his thrilling victory here on Saturday night over Andy Roddick he could be forgiven for starting to think about the challenges that could lie ahead.. Andy Roddick stood at the net, his shoulders slumped, staring down the court in disbelief and dismay. The Wimbledon runner-up of the last two years had pummelled one of his trademark forehands into the corner and raced forward ready to hit a point-winning volley, only to find the ball flying back past him and beyond his reach. It would have been painful enough if it had happened only once, but this was a scene repeated time after time as Andy Murray played the match of his life on Centre Court here on Saturday evening. The winner meets either Dmitry Tursunov or Jarkko Nieminen.Nadal has beaten Federer in four finals this year. If he were to meet the world No 1 on his own territory there is no doubt that Federer would be fancied to win his fourth successive title, but, as the likes of Brazil and Argentina have discovered in Germany, being favourite can count for nothing in the heat of battle..

The Spaniard appears to have the easiest task in the fourth round, against Irakli Labadze, a Georgian qualifier ranked No 166 in the world. Verdasco will be the favourite, having knocked out David Nalbandian. Bjorkman and Mirnyi, who face each other, are doubles partners. Bjorkman is enjoying an Indian summer as a singles player, while Mirnyi is at last living up to the potential he has always shown on grass.The bottom half of the men’s draw is intriguing. Lleyton Hewitt is the player with the grass-court pedigree, having won the Wimbledon title four years ago, but his form here has been patchy and he does not quite cut the dashing figure of 2002.

He has already beaten Tommy Robredo, the No 11 seed, and in the last round showed great composure to come back from a set down against Mikhail Youzhny.Ancic is the last player to have beaten Federer at Wimbledon. The Croat has not had the simplest of passages to the fourth round, but he proved his grass-court credentials with his victory in the Rosmalen tournament last month.One of the semi-finalists in Federer’s half of the draw will come from Fernando Verdasco, Radek Stepanek, Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi. If the world No 1 beats Tomas Berdych he faces the winner of a fascinating fourth-round match between Novak Djokovic and Mario Ancic, two of the game’s most improved players.Djokovic, a good friend of Andy Murray’s and born within a week of the Scot, enjoyed a great run to the French Open quarter-finals before losing to Nadal and has brought that form to the All England Club. Roger Federer believes he has made his best ever start at Wimbledon and has yet to drop a set, although he could face major challenges against young guns in the next two rounds.

In the other half Henin-Hardenne looks likely to renew her rivalry in the semi-finals with Clijsters, although Nicole Vaidisova, French Open semi-finalist, could yet trip up Clijsters.The men’s singles appears more clear-cut. Although three contenders in Venus Williams, Martina Hingis and Svetlana Kuznetsova have gone out here, the top four in the seedings, Am?e Mauresmo, Kim Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne and Maria Sharapova, have yet to drop a set.The top half of the draw is likely to see Mauresmo and three Russians – Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva – contest the quarter-finals. Henin-Hardenne in particular is looking in excellent shape to win the only Grand Slam tournament that has eluded her and if a Nadal victory would be a much greater surprise it would still take a brave pundit to discount totally the chances of the man from Majorca.Given the comparative lack of strength in depth, women’s tournaments are always more difficult to assess in the early stages than men’s. Substitutes used: Noone, Bracek, Pickersgill, Cooper.Referee: S Ganson (St Helens).. According to modern tennis wisdom it is well nigh impossible for French Open champions to dust off the clay from Roland Garros and win on the green grass of Wimbledon a month later.