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LONDON - Fourth seed Amelie Mauresmo could not get off centre court quick enough today when her reign as Wimbledon tennis champion came to an inglorious end on a day of thunderclaps and cloudbursts.
The Frenchwoman's hopes of retaining her precious title disappeared when 18-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova beat her 7-6 4-6 6-1.
If the final two shots of her 2007 campaign, two woeful slices into the bottom of the net, were anything to go by it looked as if she had long stopped caring.
Maybe she just wanted to get away from the relentless rain that has left the soggy championships approaching 200 matches behind schedule with five days to go.
When the last of the day's storms ended play just before 7.30pm (local time) two men's third round matches were still incomplete, while the women's fourth round clash of the champions between Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams had managed just three points after being shunted out to court three.
Men's second seed Rafael Nadal was locked at 4-4 in the fifth set against Swede Robin Soderling with the Spaniard facing playing every day if he is to reach the final again.
Incredibly, the Spaniard and Soderling first walked on court on Sunday (NZT) and the outcome of their match is still in the balance.
Novak Djokovic and Nicolas Kiefer were level at one set all in their third round tie.
One day after a hobbling Serena Williams screamed, cried and snarled her way to a remarkable fourth round victory over Daniela Hantuchova, Mauresmo folded in startling fashion.
She was leading Vaidisova 4-2 in the first set when rain first intervened and, when the players returned, Mauresmo squandered three set points in the tiebreak before losing the first set.
Mauresmo was 4-2 up in the second when rain descended again, but this time she returned to level the match.
Her game simply fell apart in the decider and the red mist had descended long before she thrashed a ball to the far flung corners of the All England Club after another fluffed volley at the start of the final game.
"Everything went wrong today," said Mauresmo, 27, who served 14 double faults.
"It was a shitty match."
Umpire Kim Craven's day was not much better. At the start of the second set he forgot who was serving and from what end and eventually had to be helped out by a ballboy.
At least Vaidisova kept her wits about her to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time where she will meet French Open runnerup Ana Ivanovic.
It was left to the lesser known Marion Bartoli to keep French hopes alive in the women's draw when she came from behind to beat third seed Jelena Jankovic 3-6 7-5 6-3.
In a raft of women's fourth round matches postponed from yesterday there were mixed fortunes for the Russians.
Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, complete with a new-look hairdo, beat Austrian 16-year-old Tamira Paszek 6-3 6-2 but Nadia Petrova lost to Serbian sixth seed Ivanovic.
A few men did manage to escape the chaos in the bottom half of the draw.
Australian Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, eventually dislodged Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 after they had been one set apiece overnight.
Nikolay Davydenko, the unassuming Russian sixth seed, also reached the fourth round when he finished off Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-3 7-5 6-3.
Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero is one step ahead.
The 20th seed seized his chance to reach the quarterfinals for the first time with a 7-5 6-3 7-6 win over Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia.
The former world No 1 next faces Roger Federer, who has serenely sat out the last few rain-lashed days after being handed a walkover by the injured Tommy Haas.
- REUTERS
