Parmar takes set off Kafelnikov

Heavyweight men's seeds Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov dented British pride on Thursday, demolishing a pair of home wildcards to move into the third round at Wimbledon.

Barry Cowan's five-set heroics against defending champion Pete Sampras on Wednesday night had the All England Club crowds dreaming of an upset. But second seed Agassi and Kafelnikov, seeded seventh, had other ideas.

Agassi was imperious on Centre Court and never gave the crowd a chance to get behind wildcard Jamie Delgado, beating the 24-year-old 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.

"Somebody has to lose, somebody has to win," Agassi said afterwards. "If I start finding my range out there, confidence comes quickly."

Russian former world number one Kafelnikov dropped the first set against another wildcard, Arvind Parmar, but from then on was just as convincing, romping home 6-7, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

On Court One Australian third seed Pat Rafter, last year's runner-up, beat Czech Slava Dosedel 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the last 32.

Agassi, champion here in 1992, was facing his first British opponent in 11 Wimbledon appearances.

And unlike compatriot Sampras, who was pushed all the way by Cowan, the execution took just 88 minutes with Agassi dominating from the start on Centre Court.

SERVE CRUMBLED

He started the first set with an ace and was ruthlessly efficient, breaking Delgado in the sixth and eighth games to establish his supremacy.

In the second set, Delgado's serve crumbled in the 10th game against the 1992 Wimbledon champion. In the third set, he saved four match points at 5-2 but Agassi then swiftly despatched him.

"As one-sided as the match appeared on paper, I think those that are the most experienced go out there with a tremendous amount of respect for what has to be done - because at the end of the day you have to execute to win," Agassi said.

Agassi will play either Brazil's Fernando Meligeni or Chilean Nicolas Massu in the next round.

Kafelnikov recovered from losing the first set out on court two to silence Parmar's supporters.

The Russian served two double faults and netted a simple backhand volley on Parmar's second set point to gift the world number 211 the first set tiebreak 7-5.

But the Russian - a former Australian and French Open champion - hit back by breaking in the seventh and ninth games of the second set to level.

Parmar, who saved a matchpoint in a five-set first round win over Andre Sa of Brazil, failed to convert three break points at 1-1 in the third set and from there Kafelnikov never looked back.

He plays either Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark or Guillermo Canas of Argentina for a place in the last 16.

"I think I was quite a bit nervous at the start and I think he played far above his standard," the Russian said after a short rainbreak delayed the beginning of the match.

FELT IN DANGER

"But then I settled down and never really felt in danger. When you are playing a five-set match you can play yourself into it."

Kafelnikov said that self-belief had been the key. "I belong in the top 10 whatever surface you are talking about," he said. "Arvind hasn't had that much success."

In other men's early action 10th seed Thomas Enqvist brushed aside France's Stephane Huet 6-2, 7-6, 6-1.

In early women's action, 16th seed Silvia Farina Elia of Italy defeated an injury-hampered Alexandra Stevenson 6-3 6-2 to move into the third round.

The 20-year-old American wild card entrant, a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 1999, needed treatment to her lower back at 3-2 in the first set and never fully recovered.

Farina completed two successive breaks against her grimacing opponent to take the opener and kept Stevenson moving as she took the second set to seal victory.

The 29-year-old Italian faces either Austria's Sylvia Plischke or Nadejda Petrova of Russia in the last 32.

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