Martin, Bruguera Move On Up, As Date Falls

WIMBLEDON, England -- It has been a wild and wonderful Wimbledon -- one of the most startling opening weeks in the tournament's history -- as eight of the men's top 16 seeds were upset in the first five days. The top women, too, have had their problems, with No. 1 Steffi Graf losing her first-round match and No. 6 Kimiko Date of Japan losing Friday in straight sets to unseeded Larisa Neiland of Latvia. Lori McNeil, Graf's surprise conqueror, reached Wimbledon's fourth round Friday as another giant-killer, Kenneth Carlsen, fell ill and withdrew a day after upsetting Stefan Edberg. McNeil defeated Kristie Boogert of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-4. Carlsen, a Dane ranked 113th, began vomiting during his third-round match with Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and withdrew trailing 6-4, 6-4, 1-0. Escaping Wimbledon's upset epidemic Friday, clay-court expert Sergi Bruguera, No. 8, and No. 6 Todd Martin won hard-fought third-round victories. Martin barely survived a four-hour, five-set battle with Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 11-9. Bruguera, who had won only once in his life on grass before this week, beat Jean-Philippe Fleurian of France, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. He will play in the fourth round against 10th-seeded Michael Chang, who beat Grant Connell of Canada, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-2. Also on Friday, Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic outlasted 15th-seeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and South African Wayne Ferreira trounced Chris Wilkinson, one of two Britons still left in the tournament, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Kafelnikov was the eighth of the 16 men's seeds to lose. Playing in only her second Wimbledon, Lindsay Davenport, the No. 9 seed, beat Barbara Rittner of Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Gabriela Sabatini, the 10th-seeded Argentine, without a tournament title for two years, had a surprisingly easy 6-4, 6-1 victory over American Meredith McGrath. In late Thursday matches, the fifth-seeded Jim Courier, winner of four Grand Slams, was defeated by France's Guy Forget, 1,130th in the rankings, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.Sergi Bruguera beat Patrick Rafter of Australia, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 4-6, 7-4, 13-11. Fourth-seeded Martina Navratilova had an easy second-round win over Sandra Cecchini, 6-2, 6-0 to remain on course for a 10th Wimbledon title. (Washington Post, AP)