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Kournikova struggles; Medvedev beaten

Anna Kournikova found the going tough against Maria Alejandra Vento but managed to come out trumps in the end, with a 7-5, 6-4 victory in a women's singles second round match at Wimbledon today.

Seeded 17, the most photographed player who is yet to win a singles title, surrendered two early breaks and was forced to save three set points in the first set before getting past the unseeded Venezuelan.

Nevertheless, the 18-year-old was pleased with her showing. "I'm definitely happy I'm in the third round. I think I played very well," she said.

However, there was slight disappointment for her as her doubles partner Martina Hingis pulled out of the tournament on Tuesday, citing an injury to her heel following her humiliating defeat in the first round against Australian Jelena Dokic.

There was a mild surprise in the men's singles as French Open finalist Andrei Medvedev went out early, convincingly beaten by Canada's Daniel Nestor 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

Jennifer Capriati's comeback took a wrong turn when the American former world No 6 was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by Dutch qualifier Seda Noorlander in the second round.

Kournikova was joined by South African Amanda Coetzer, seeded 12th, and Sandrine Testud of France in the next round. Coetzer easily beat Miho Saeki of Japan 6-4, 6-1, while Testud, the 13th seed, after a tough opening set, whipped Barbara Rittner of Germany 7-6(7-2) 6-1.

Coetzer plays Belgian qualifier Kim Clijsters, who thrashed Karen Cross of Britain 6-2, 6-0. Kournikova plays Argentina's Ines Gorrochategui, who beat Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir 6-2, 6-2.

In another match in the men's singles, 14th seed Tommy Haas finished off a first round match, held over from Tuesday because of bad light, scraping past Peter Wessels of The Netherlands 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Yesterday, it was Boris Becker, Wimbledon champion in 1985-86 and 1989, who held centrestage in the men's singles. The German was forced to struggle before getting past Britain's Miles MacLagan in five sets.

Becker's footwork was terrible throughout the match, and only a last resurgence of his old power game - and the 298th ranked MacLagan's inability to maintain the pressure the last three sets - gave Becker a chance to escape from the graveyard of Court 2, where so many upsets and career-ending matches have taken place.

In the second round, Becker will face 15th-seeded Nicholas Kiefer.

If Becker was a disappointing winner, another Andre Agassi, former champion, looked very sharp in his 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 first-round victory over Andrei Pavlov of Romania.

He said after the match that now he'd won each of the major tournaments once, he'd like to add additional trophies to his collection. He also said he'd like to end the year at No. 1 for the first time in his career.