Grand-slammed

Wimbledon has seldom seen a day like it. In little more than three hours, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, two of the game's greatest players who between them had won the men's singles title for eight of the previous 10 years, were eliminated by relatively unknown opponents who have never won any title.

And if that was not enough, Marat Safin, at No 2, was the highest among a succession of seeded casualties, hustled out by the diminutive Belgian Olivier Rochus. It means that for the first time five of the top eight seeds in the men's singles have been beaten even before completion of the second round.

While in pure tennis terms the manner of Agassi's overwhelming 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 defeat by 67th-ranked Paradorn Srichaphan - a result which will alarm Britain's Davis Cup team waiting to play Thailand in September - was the biggest surprise, it was Sampras's unbelievably premature loss to a lucky loser, George Bastl, of Switzerland, which made the biggest emotional impact.

At the same time, the day's astonishing events will only have boosted the confidence among the principal remaining favourites for the title - Britain's Tim Henman and world champion Lleyton Hewitt, not to mention British No 2 Greg Rusedski, who escaped the day's carnage and beat the Korean Hyung-Taik Lee.

Sampras was close to tears after suffering not just his earliest defeat at Wimbledon for 11 years but the indignity of defeat by an opponent who a week ago was beaten by Alexander Waske, of Germany, in the third round of qualifying. Yet he refused to accept that his major tennis days are over.

"I'm not going to let my time here end like this," said the 30-year-old American, the greatest champion of this or any generation, as he tried to come to terms with his 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4 defeat by Bastl, who before last week had never won a match on grass or on the main tour.

"It was a tough loss for me last year," said Sampras, recalling how his record-breaking reign had been brought to an end in the fourth round by another Swiss player, Roger Federer, "and it's a tough loss this year. Things like this, though, make you appreciate even more all that I have done here. I plan on coming back next year and the years after as long as I feel I can do it here. I want to end it on a high note, not like this."

As Bastl, who was only brought back into the tournament with the withdrawal of Spain's Felix Mantilla, was mentally pinching himself and then throwing wrist bands into the stunned crowd on Court No 2, there was a gasp as the score from the Centre Court was flashed up on the screen.

For more than a minute Sampras, who had fought back so courageously from two sets down and even had a break point which would have left him serving for the match at 5-3 in the final set, sat on his courtside chair, staring into his racket but probably seeing only an empty void.

Eventually, he dragged himself to his feet and slowly walked off the court known as the graveyard of the champions, raising one arm in salute to a crowd on their feet paying what many doubtless thought would be their final Wimbledon tribute to him.

Sampras, whose serving and volleying are a shadow of their former match-winning quality, admitted that while he had sat there, well after Bastl had departed, he "felt numb" and added: "It's not a feeling that I like, especially here."

Last year, after Sampras was beaten in the final of the US Open and no longer looked as if he had the mental and physical stamina to maintain the meticulous standard of tennis he demands of himself, I wrote that I hoped he would retire so that we would always remember him as the tennis king he had been.

Bastl, who felt comfortable on the grass after three weeks of practice, had nothing to lose and went for his shots as if it was just another match. He fully deserved his victory on the day and the fleeting glory.

"You have your highs and lows and this is definitely a low point," Sampras said. "I'm not going to give in to the critics. I'm going to stop on my own terms, not when someone else thinks so. It's no fun losing but I still believe I have a major in me. I want to continue playing."

The success his fellow-American, Andre Agassi, continues to enjoy at the age of 32 may be one of the reasons which inspires Sampras to keep fighting. But the only player since Rod Laver to win all four of the Grand Slams was comprehensively outplayed by Srichaphan once he lost a 3-1 lead in the first set.

"It was a bit of a shocker for me today," Agassi said. "I'm certainly disappointed but I never found my rhythm. I never settled in but there are no excuses." Despite breaking back from 2-4 to 5-5 in the second set tie-break, he kept being beaten by his opponent's rasping groundstrokes.

"I have to keep the tape of this match," the overjoyed Thai said. "My father [his coach since he was seven] normally records my matches with a camcorder but this was live on TV at home so I'll keep the video."