World number one Andre Agassi overcame a tenacious Lars Burgsmueller to reach the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win on Thursday.
The 1992 champion and second seed got off to a flying start on the sun-drenched court one as he broke the 88th-ranked German in the first game to surge into a 2-0 lead.
Burgsmueller struggled to find his rhythm and achieved only 38 per cent success on his serve in the first set, which the American won in 34 minutes with a blistering forehand cross-court pass.
Burgsmueller put in a dogged performance in the second but ran out of steam in the tiebreak and lost it 7-4, before Agassi finished off his opponent with an emphatic smash on his second match-point.
Agassi will face an intriguing third-round showdown with 27th seed Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco for a place in the last 16.
Aynaoui got the better of beat Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.
Henman keeps British hopes alive
Tim Henman carried British hopes into the third round, beating French qualifier Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
After British number two Greg Rusedski went out under a cloud on Centre Court on Wednesday, an excited crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief then cheered wildly when Henman, 28, wrapped up the match with a smash after one hour 54 minutes.
Henman will face yet another qualifier, Robin Soderling. The Swede beat Gilles Elseneer, of Belgium, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The 28-year-old Henman said he felt relaxed and was used to the pressure of being the sole focus of home expectations.
"It's been the case ... for the last six or seven years. I feel like I've been able to handle that pretty well, so again just got to carry on and keep doing my best," he said.
The 10th seed looked edgy on his serve during the first two sets but played the big points well, unlike Llodra who capitulated twice while serving to stay in the set.
Llodra, ranked 136 in the world, had not won a match outside qualifying before Wimbledon this year and managed to convert only two of his 10 break points, coming off second best in volley exchanges.
Henman, dubbed the nearly-man after reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals four times in the last five years, grew in confidence as the match progressed.
His injured shoulder which needed surgery last November appeared to be holding out well, though his serve lacked the power of previous years.
Henman lives under the permanent pressure of trying to become the first man to win the singles title for 67 years, but his form has suffered since the injury.
James Blake disappoints again
James Blake, along with Andy Roddick the future of American men's tennis, again failed to make a lasting impression at Wimbledon, beaten 6-2, 7-6, 6-2 in the second round by Sargis Sargsian of Armenia.
Blake was let down by his serve from the start, hitting four double faults in his first two service games to fall 0-4 down.
"You're not going to win this way," Blake yelled at himself, but things did not improve in the second set. Sargsian's accuracy from the baseline kept the pressure on and the 23-year-old American quickly went 5-1 behind.
He fought back to 5-5 but then wasted all his good work by throwing away a string of points in the tiebreak to lose it 7-3.
Sargsian, who beat Roddick in the first round at the French Open this year, opened up a 4-1 lead in the third set, meeting little resistance from his disconsolate opponent.
Last year, in his first visit to Wimbledon, Blake also failed to make it past the second round.