Serve gladiators to battle it out at Wimbledon

Wimbledon will witness one of its great gladiatorial contests on Monday when Goran Ivanisevic steps on to court one to do battle with Greg Rusedski.

Service is all-important on the fast grass courts of the All England Club and both men have fearful weaponry in this department.

Britain's Rusedski, who will have huge home support, possesses the fastest serve ever seen in professional tennis and can hit a tennis ball at 149 mph.

Croatian Ivanisevic, with his great height, is almost impossible to return if his serve settles into a groove. He has reached three Wimbledon finals but had the misfortune to meet Pete Sampras, probably the greatest grasscourt player of all time, in two of them and Andre Agassi, master of the service return, in the other.

Six months ago neither man would have dreamed he could reach the second week of Wimbledon. Rusedski had a dismal 2000 because of a foot injury and Ivanisevic has been making excuses to delay surgery on his shoulder for nearly two years.

But success seems to have eased the 29-year-old's pain and he feels this, probably his last campaign at Wimbledon, could well end with him getting his hands on the winner's trophy.

Rusedski, whose movement on court has been exceptional, feels he is playing at his peak but he knows that history is not on his side in the fourth-round match.

The two have played eight times and the Canadian-born left-hander has lost the lot.

FIRST WIN

"I think I've had a total of 15 match points but never gotten over the hurdle," the Briton said. "I'd love to try to get my first win on him."

Rusedski admits he does not like court one because of some embarrassing losses there, including his defeat to American Vince Spadea in the first round of Wimbledon last year.

"I'd be quite happy not to see that court very often, especially in the later stages."

Ivanisevic's sense of destiny and wonder at his own achievement is now so strong, he has no fears about anything or anyone. "The way I served is just too good. Nobody gave me any chance, nobody believed I could do it.

"Everything is open - I always say that, in the second week of a Grand Slam, the first tournament is over. Now the second one begins."

The match is unlikely to be one for the purists - Andre Agassi believes the crowd is "not going to see a lot of tennis" - and will probably come down to who wins a couple of key points.

If both serves are on form, there are bound to be tiebreaks - and half of the 22 sets between the two men have been decided in tennis's version of the penalty shoot-out.

DAVENPORT FLYING

The stand-out match of the eight being played in the women's singles is the Centre Court meeting between 1999 champion Lindsay Davenport and Yugoslav Jelena Dokic, the young woman who generates headlines every time she comes to Wimbledon.

In 1999, she beat world number one Martina Hingis in the first round while last year she reached the semifinals and her father Damir was thrown out after an altercation with a journalist.

On Saturday she slammed tournament organisers for failing to arrange transport for her and called a tabloid article on her father "horrendous".

Dokic, seeded 14, has extraordinary mental strength, a powerful forehand and has rediscovered the drop shot which caused Hingis so many problems two years ago.

But Davenport, a finalist last year, is floating around the court again after three months out with injury and has the more varied game.

"It's going to be a tough match but I'm not fearful. I've got a good record against hard-hitters," the American third seed says.

Defending men's champion Pete Sampras follows his compatriot on court against Roger Federer, the 19-year-old Swiss who is developing a taste for grass court tennis.

But Sampras, after his obligatory first-week wobble against British wildcard Barry Cowan, looks as cool as ever and knows the 15th seed will not be the first player to feel overawed playing the master on his "home" court.

MORE RELAXED

"If anything, I'm a little more relaxed coming in this year," said the top seed, going for a record eighth title here.

If Sampras wins, he will play British sixth seed Tim Henman or fellow American Todd Martin in the quarter-finals while, at the bottom of the draw, the finalist could come from the quarter-final between Agassi and Australian Lleyton Hewitt, two of the most charismatic players in men's tennis.

Agassi, seeded second, plays 19th seed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany on Monday while Hewitt takes on France's Nicolas Escude, seeded 24th.

Third seed Pat Rafter, last year's losing finalist and in the same half of the draw as Agassi, plays unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

Venus Williams, the defending women's champion, should sweep past unseeded Russian Nadia Petrova but her sister Serena, seeded fifth, may have to up her game to beat Bulgarian 12th seed Magdalena Maleeva.

Serena is heading for a mouth-watering quarter-final against fellow American Jennifer Capriati, still on course for a Grand Slam of the major titles after winning in Australia and Paris.

Capriati, seeded fourth, plays Sandrine Testud of France (15th seed) on Monday in a half of the draw benefiting from the first-round defeat of Hingis.