Routine victory for evergreen Agassi

ANDRE AGASSI admits to feeling his age – but only away from the tennis court.

The evergreen former champion, who recently regained the number one spot in the world rankings, eased himself into the last 32 of the men’s singles with a routine 6-3 7-6 6-3 victory over gritty German Davis Cup player Lars Burgsmuller.

The 33-year-old Agassi, who went out at the second-round stage to Paradorn Srichaphan last year, controlled his match from the start and was back in the locker room within two hours.

It is 11 years since he won the Wimbledon title but he says the years of inactivity caused by injury have helped to prolong his career.

Burgsmuller, with only one previous win at the All England Club behind him, belied his world ranking of 88 to make Agassi fight for his win.

The German was far from overawed on his Court One debut but he was always struggling to contain his illustrious opponent after dropping his serve in the first game, something he repeated in the third set.

Agassi’s next opponent is Younes El Aynaoui, the 27th seed from Morocco, who beat Nicolas Massu, of Chile, 7-6 3-6 7-6 6-4, but has lost all four previous meetings with the American.

Third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero last night advanced to the third round when Nicolas Escude had to retire hurt. Ferrero had just taken the third set to lead two sets to one when Escude indicated he could not continue.

The Frenchman had injured his groin after a heavy fall in the middle of the third set and received lengthy treatment on Centre Court.

He was a break down with the score at deuce when he called for the trainer, but he returned to action to take the next two points and get back on level terms. French Open champion Ferrero soon broke again however, producing a breathtaking running forehand winner and an equally sublime lob, and another break gave him the set 6-3.

Earlier, Escude had taken the first set in the tie-break after 64 minutes, recovering from 4-1 down to take six of the next seven points.

Tim Henman was still not entirely convincing but did enough to book his place in the third round. Henman beat France’s Michael Llodra in straight sets on Centre Court, but hardly imposed himself on the qualifier.

The 10th seed won 6-4 6-4 6-3 and faces his third qualifier of the championships in unknown Swede Robin Soderling in the last 32.

Defending women’s champion Serena Williams advanced to the third round with her ninth successive straight sets Wimbledon win but for the second year running Els Callens made her fight all the way.

Williams needed a pair of tie-breaks to dismiss the plucky Belgian’s challenge at the last 32 stage 12 months ago, and while yesterday’s 6-4 6-4 win was not quite as tight, the American walked off Court One knowing she had been in a match.

Eleventh seed Jelena Dokic maintained her recent improvement in form with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 win over Emmanuelle Gagliardi to earn an eye-catching third round meeting with Maria Sharapova.

Greg Rusedski has escaped with a €2,500 fine for his on-court outburst during his Wimbledon second round defeat to Andy Roddick.

The British number two lost his cool midway through the third set when he stopped playing after a spectator called out on a Roddick shot which was clearly in.