Monday, July 3 2006 15:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Andy Murray will fly the flag for Britain but the second week of Wimbledon will get underway here on Monday with the unheralded Shenay Perry as the only American survivor in the men's or women's singles.

With Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport both missing through injury, Andy Roddick, Venus Williams and Andre Agassi all failed to make it beyond the half-way stage of a tournament in which American success is almost as traditional as the strawberries and cream.

Both Williams and Roddick fell on Saturday, a day which also saw Agassi check out of Wimbledon for the last time after a straight sets defeat by Rafael Nadal brought down the curtain on his farewell appearance.

Roddick, beaten in straight sets by Scots teenager Murray, will be back next year. But the All England Club may have seen the last of Venus Williams after she was beaten by Jelena Jankovic, a Serb who spends as much time on her university studies as on her tennis, 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-4.

The upset will only have added to Court No. 2's reputation as a graveyard for the tournament's biggest names, as well as sparking speculation about whether Williams, three times a winner here, will ever come back.

She is already effectively a part-time player and has suggested that she will retire if, as is highly possible, injury prevents her younger sister Serena from returning to the tour. Jankovic's reward for the biggest win of her career was a fourth round meeting with Russia's Anastasia Myskina, the ninth seed.

Roddick's verdict on the unusually poor American showing was typically pithy. "It sucks," he admitted.

"I've got used to that press conference at the French Open where we get asked how much we suck on clay," he said.

"But it is a lot more surprising and disappointing when it is here, a place where we have all had so much success," he said. Murray's reward for the best performance of his career to date was a fourth round meeting with Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, who accounted for 15th seed Sebastien Grosjean, a former semi-finalist here, in four sets.

"He has got a bit more experience than me having made the final in Australia and he is in the top 20, but if I can play like I did against Andy, I think I can win that match," said Murray.

Nadal's 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 6-4 dismissal of Agassi was a display that suggested the crown prince of Spanish tennis, who was a one-year-old toddler when Agassi made his first appearance here in 1987, could become a Wimbledon king far sooner than anyone had expected.

Nadal's path to the quarter-finals now looks clear with his next appointment being a fourth round meeting with qualifier Irakli Labadze and defending champion Roger Federer may have to revise his opinion that the Spaniard does not represent his main threat here.

Lleyton Hewitt, the 2004 champion made short work of Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 to book his place in the fourth round, where he will face Spaniard David Ferrer, who is seeded 23rd largely on the strength of his performances on the clay court circuit.

Hewitt, who survived an energy-sapping five-set battle with Lee Hyung-Taik in the previous round, was delighted to get back to a more consistent level of performance and predicted a gritty, attritional battle with Ferrer.

"It's gonna be a dogfight out there," he said.

"Hopefully on grass I can put him under a little bit more pressure," he said.

There were no slip-ups from top seed Amelie Mauresmo or the 2004 champion Maria Sharapova, who both swept into the last 16 with straight sets wins over Australia's Nicole Pratt and American Amy Frazier respectively.

Sharapova, the pin-up girl of women's tennis, will face Italian 16th seed Flavia Pennetta while Mauresmo takes on Serbian 19th seed Ana Ivanovic.