London, June 29: Andre Agassi had to dig deep to reach the second week at Wimbledon yesterday as Russia's new generation of women stars took the all England club by storm.
Agassi was given a severe Centre Court examination by Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui, a fellow member of the small club of fathers on the men's tour.
But after three and a half hours, the world number one finally prevailed 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/4), surviving three set points in the 12th game of the fourth set which would have sent the match into a gruelling fifth set.
Afterwards Agassi underlined that he had gone into the match with a crucial advantage over his opponent, the father of two young sons.

"There are not too many guys I play who get less sleep than I do and Younes is one of those guys," joked the American, who has a 20-month-old son of his own, Jaden Gil, with his wife Steffi Graf.



Agassi now faces an intriguing fourth round clash with Australia's Mark Philippoussis, who is enjoying a new lease of life after finally putting the knee injury problems which threatened to end his career behind him.



Philippoussis, whose pounding serves earned him the nickname Scud, went through at the expense of the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek 4-6 7-6 (9/7) 6-4 7-6 (8/6).



Tim Henman kept Britain's hopes alive by reaching the second week for the eighth consecutive year with a straight sets win over Swedish qualifier Robin Soderling.


Bureau Report