Ivanisevic beats Roddick

Goran Ivanisevic, a three time runner-up at Wimbledon and a wildcard this year, overcame American Andy Roddick in four sets to reach the fourth round of the men's singles on Friday. The Croat won 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

In the round of 16, on Monday, Ivanisevic will play Briton Greg Rusedski, who advanced with a ruthless 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Spanish eighth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Ivanisevic tore off his shirt and posed like Superman on Court 1 after knocking out the American teenage prospect in one hour and 54 minutes.

It was indeed a super-human effort by the experienced Ivanisevic, whose career seemed to be coming to an end because of injury and erratic form.

But, against an 18-year-old who has drawn plaudits from John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi on his first appearance at The Championships, the Croat stopped the march of youth for one day.

Ivanisevic, who had to rely on a wild card, rained down 41 aces in an almost faultless serving performance. He won an impressive 79 per cent on his first serve alone as Roddick shook his head at the helplessness of his plight.

The American played well, but Ivanisevic, who spent last year being knocked out in the 1st round of almost every tournament and considering his future, is having a second coming.

Ivanisevic took the first set in a tie-break with a second serve ace that was faster than his first serve. He broke Roddick in the 11th game of the second to go 2-0 up.

But Roddick managed to break the Ivanisevic serve for the first and only time in the sixth game of the third to reduce the arrears. However, it was Ivanisevic's day as he took his third match point with an ace before indulging in his extravagant celebration. It was well earned.

Ferrero, a natural claycourter whose only two career victories on grass have come at the Championships this week, was totally out of sorts on his first appearance on Centre Court.

But Rusedski, the world number 40, served and volleyed with great confidence and dominated 21-year-old Ferrero from the back court.

The 27-year-old Rusedski, whose best showing at Wimbledon was a quarter-final place in 1995, broke thrice in the first set, clinched the second with a 138 miles (222.1 km) per hour ace and served out on his fifth match-point.

Fourth seed Jennifer Capriati survived a scare in the second set to beat Russia's Tatiana Panova 6-4, 6-4.