Goran shoots down Rusedski

Ivanisevic's serving continued to offer no hope to his opponent, so that Rusedski was reduced to indulging in some pretty blatant gamsemanship when he offered his racket to a ball boy to see if he could do any better.

In the old days, Ivanisevic might have blown a gasket, but we were watching the third Goran here, the one he calls the "brain man", and he quietly laughed off the episode, dutifully played a mini rally with the ball boy and then proceeded to continue his destruction.

When Rusedski gave himself half a chance by getting to 30-30 on Ivanisevic's serve in the eighth game, the Briton's frustration became evident when he missed a simple chance at a forehand pass and threw his racket down in disgust. Ivanisevic then served a 17th ace to help him on his way to a 2-0 set lead after an hour.

Rusedski threw caution to the wind at the start of the third set but still the Croat's delivery seemed quite impregnable. Then with the pressure beginning to tell in the court which Rusedski professes to despise, he produced one mis-hit and then failed to cope with a searing Ivanisevic return as the three-time finalist broke for 4-3.

The Briton's last chance appeared to come in the next game when, helped by a double fault, he raced into a 30-0 lead but Ivanisevic's serve once again extricated himself from trouble and went on to win.

Wimbledon champion Sampras provided further proof today that his domination of the game was waning when he struggled against Swiss outsider Roger Federer. Sampras lost the first set on a tie-break and had to save two break points in the fifth game of the second set. The American was looking for his 100th grass court victory, but instead of enjoying an easy ride against the 15th seed he found himself questioning line calls.

His powerful serve failed to dishearten the 19-year-old and the match looked set to rival the close tie he eventually won against Briton Barry Cowan in the second round. A last-eight place against Todd Martin or Tim Henman was at stake, but No1 seed Sampras was having to dig deep to find convincing form.

In the second set, he had reached a position of 4-4 with neither having his serve broken. A leg injury to Federer in the second set, however, would have given Sampras encouragement.

Pat Rafter thought he was on the way out today against Russian teenager Mikhail Youzhny, but clung on to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.

Rafter now meets Swede Thomas Enqvist in the quarter-final, but the Aussie admitted: "Mikhail came out on fire. I started accepting defeat there for a while."

Rafter came out equipped with a peaked cap and heavy sun protection on his face, but it was the 19-year-old who gave him more to worry about. If Rafter suspected in those early stages that he could join the lengthy list of stars who have lost on Court Two he was more than justified in that belief.

Rafter's uncertainty on serve meant he was in difficulties in three out of four games and was broken in two of them.