LONDON - Wimbledon experienced its first delayed start for rain but there was no stopping Andre Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten and Jana Novotna as they rushed into the quarter-finals.
Agassi, the fourth seed, beat Australian qualifier and tiebreak specialist Wayne Arthurs 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 6-4 on court one.
Having missed two
set points in the first set, the big-serving Arthurs, who had won seven of his eight tiebreaks going into the match, made it eight out of nine, winning 7-5 to rock the French Open champion.
The second set followed a similar pattern, but this time in the tiebreak it was the American who gained the vital mini-break, slapping away a forehand to win it 7-5.
Arthurs recovered from 0-40 in the first game of the third set but a stunning backhand service return gave Agassi the first break of the match in Arthurs' next service game.
Incredibly, it was the first time either in qualifying or the tournament proper that Arthurs had lost his serve.
The dam had been breached and Agassi broke twice more to wrap up the set 6-1, then timed his next break to perfection, forcing an error out of Arthurs at 4-5 30-40 in the fourth with a delightful lob, to take victory.
"It's difficult to win if you can't break somebody's serve," Agassi said.
"He served so well in the first two sets but the start of the third set was the turning point. He began to feel the pressure."
Agassi plays Brazilian 11th seed Gustavo Kuerten next.
Clay specialist Kuerten was trailing 15-30 while serving at 4-5 in the first set against Switzerland's Lorenzo Manta when rain called a halt. But Kuerten held his nerve at the restart and took the first set 7-5.
The 22-year-old gained an early break on his way to the second set, winning it 6-4, but threw away the third as Manta hit back with two successive breaks to take it 7-5.
But Kuerten, who had never won a match on grass before this year's Wimbledon, broke early in the fourth and was never troubled as he roared into the last eight by taking it 6-3.
British sixth seed Tim Henman was 4-6 7-5 7-5 4-3 up on serve in his centre-court clash with American Jim Courier.
