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June 27, 2001

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Safin, Ivanisevic in round 3

Fourth seed Marat Safin reached the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in his career on Wednesday when Canadian qualifier Daniel Nestor retired injured.

The Canadian had been leading 6-7, 6-3, 2-1 on court two when he pulled out with an ankle injury.

Nestor received treatment and heavy strapping to his left ankle at the end of the second set which he had clinched with inspirational tennis.

Safin, the Russian U.S. Open champion, had received a warning from umpire Andreas Egli for racket abuse midway through the second set after slamming his racket into the ground with such force that it bounced over the net.

He was also heard to claim that court two was the "worst court I've ever played on".

He meets either Germany's David Prinosil or Italian Davide Sanguinetti for a place in the last 16.

Roddick thrills

American teenager Andy Roddick lived up to his pre-tournament billing when he made his Wimbledon Centre Court debut, thrilling the crowd in a 7-6, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 defeat of 11th seed Thomas Johansson.

The Swede had won back-to-back grasscourt titles in Halle and Nottingham over the last two weeks but was no match for the flamboyant Floridian.

Eighteen-year-old Roddick ended Johansson's 11-game winning streak on grass with a power-packed display of serving and forehand drives.

Johansson outserved Roddick in the first set but the American won the tiebreak 7-1 and raced through the second before being pegged back by the 26-year-old Swede, twice a U.S. Open quarter-finalist, in the third.

The fourth set was as tight as the first but Roddick again proved stronger than his opponent in the tiebreak, taking it 7-3 to seal a third-round clash with fellow big-server Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia

Ivanisevic too good for Moya

Ivanisevic, the three times Wimbledon finalist, bombed down 35 aces to destroy the resistance of Carlos Moya to reach the third round.

The 29-year-old often-volatile Croatian, whose career nose-dived last year with a series of first round knockouts, was the player of old with a no-nonsense, cool display against the former world No.1 in a match that lasted one hour and 58 minutes on Court 18.

He sealed seven matches in a row with an ace to put him in command by the fourth set after coming back from behind to win 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Ivanisevic, in his 14th successive Wimbledon, needed a wild card to gain entry to the main draw for the first time since he made his Grand Slam debut as a qualifier at the Championships. And he took full advantage. Building on a run to the quarter-finals in Milan and to the third round in Indian Wells, Ivanisevic's confidence is growing.

There were no signs of the shoulder problem that has plagued him when he slammed down four successive aces to win the opening game of the second set from 15-0 down. He was last beaten in the final three years ago by Pete Sampras and is now looking one of the most dangerous floaters in the field.

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