Agassi Crashes Out

Third seed Andre Agassi has followed Pete Sampras and Marat Safin out of the men's second round on a day of stunning upsets at Wimbledon. Agassi's early exit came at the hands of Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

Despite breaking Srichaphan in the third game, Agassi never looked comfortable against his unheralded opponent - who has never been beyond the second round of any Grand Slam event.

Srichaphan broke back midway through the set then clinched the set 6-4 at the third attempt when the 1992 champion made another unforced error, blasting a volley beyond the baseline.

The second set started in amazing fashion with the first four games going against the serve.

Agassi was making far too many elementary errors and could not seem to find his range with a number of groundstrokes which he failed to keep in court.

In contrast, Srichaphan was going for all his shots, and a high percentage of them were coming off.

And, after taking the set into a tie-break, the Thai got a vital mini-break with a volley Agassi clearly thought had gone out and served the winner to take it 7-6 (7-5) and move into a two-set lead.

It got worse for Agassi in the third, suffering a double break which left the American on the brink of defeat. It was too much for wife Steffi Graf, who left as Agassi desperately tried to cling on.

He held his next service game, but Srichaphan was not to be denied. A forehand error from Agassi brought the Thai three match points.

Agassi saved the first but his final unforced error brought the curtain down on a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 loss, leaving Srichaphan to bow to the ground in gratitude.