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Wimbledon: LIVE NOW
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Published 27/06/2003 at 17:04 GMT+1
Bookmakers' favourite Andy Roddick breezed into Wimbledon's fourth round on Friday, casting aside promising Spaniard Tommy Robredo 7-6 6-4 6-4. Click on the LIVE LINK below to follow eurosport.com/co.uk's blow-by-blow coverage of the third round of the ye
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Fifth seed Roddick, 20, found the going much smoother against his 21-year-old opponent after his tempestuous second-round clash with Greg Rusedski earlier this week.
Robredo, who made great strides at the French Open earlier this year when he beat top seed Lleyton Hewitt and three-times champion Gustavo Kuerten to reach the quarter-finals, simply could not match Roddick on Wimbledon's fast lawns.
The American is on a grass roll after winning the prestigious Queen's tournament a week before the championships, equalling Rusedski's serving speed record of 149 mph (239.7 kph) during his semi-final victory there over Andre Agassi.
Robredo, whose game was honed on the red clay of his homeland, could not cope with the American's big serve and power game, surrendering to a smash that he could only balloon into the net on match point.
Another young Spanish pretender Rafael Nadal-Parera, who at the age of 17 has surprised Wimbledon with the maturity of his game, also found the fourth round a step too far, succumbing to 12th seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 6-4 6-4 6-2.
Nadal was the youngest player since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984 to reach the third round at Wimbledon and is sure to want to emulate the German who returned the following year to win the title.
Paradorn, who endured two exhausting five-set hauls to reach the third round, can now look forward to long rest before Monday's fourth round where he can expect more fireworks from Roddick.
In the women's draw Vera Zvonareva hurried into the weekend break, downing Iroda Tulyaganova 6-3 7-5 to set up a potential tie against Venus Williams.
The 18-year-old, who beat Venus in the fourth round at the French Open earlier this month, made light work of the first set against her Uzbek opponent before a slight wobble in the second.
At Roland Garros, Zvonareva was beaten in the quarter-finals by her fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, who plays Venus later on Friday.
With four more of their compatriots making it to the third round in the women's draw, Russian hopes are high that one of them might repeat Olga Morozova's 1974 final appearance at Wimbledon -- or even grab a first women's grand slam title for the country.
Ai Sugiyama, seeded 13, then ground out a dogged 6-4 6-4 victory over Nathalie Dechy of France, to avenge defeat by the Frenchwoman at the Eastbourne warm-up tournament.
The 27-year-old Sugiyama, who also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1996, will now play either her doubles partner and number two seed Kim Clijsters or American Samantha Reeves.
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