Nadal made to dig deep to survive

Ranked at 237 in the world, Robert Kendrick had earned his place at Wimbledon in the minefields of the Roehampton qualifying tournament. Then, having won his first Grand Slam match against Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round here, which was also his first win on tour on a grasscourt, the unknown American from Sanibel Island off the coast of Florida, faced Rafael Nadal. He knew the role expected of him.

If Wimbledon was a zoo, Kendrick was to be the chunk of carcass forked between the bars of the Lion pound at feeding time.

He would walk on to Centre Court, Nadal would tear him to pieces and the name Kendrick would disappear for ever.

Not only was the American's world ranking 235 places lower than that of Nadal but the 26-year-old was carving out a living in the Challengers, a professional circuit several tiers below that of the four Grand Slams.

The Kendrick carcass, however, had a different view of how he should behave on his day in the sun, although, the expectations that he should depart on cue were heightened further when Andre Agassi won his three-set match earlier in the day against Italy's Andreas Seppi.

The merciless disposal of Kendrick was not just expected then but demanded so that a third-round weekend meeting between the past and the future, Agassi and Nadal, could happen. Somewhere along the way Kendrick decided to break the habit of a lifetime. He hit big serves and mixed up his game. He sliced and he ran to the net and for almost two sets he dominated the number two player in the world.

Nadal, not quite able to get the same amount of time to hit his returns or the high bounce he so loves on the clay, became the hunted. Kendrick came out swinging and, as so often happens with qualifiers when they come up against giants of the game, he hit like a condemned man, without fear, without thinking of the consequences and without the burden of expectation.

Two sets later Kendrick was shaping the game into one of the biggest upsets of modern times. Nadal, whenever he inched into his opponent's service games was ferociously repelled with an ace or an unreturnable delivery.

In the third set it was no different and towards the end the young Spaniard found himself at an ignominious juncture, just two points away from going out of the tournament. But the three-set mark is when the true dirt players become limber and oiled.

Nadal had walked this marathon territory many times before, Kendrick never. Nadal's conditioning allows him to be comfortable when matches reach towards two, three or four hours. A tie break at 6-6 in the third set decided how it would ultimately end and when Nadal took a 4-1 lead there and converted the set, the subtext was that it was the match too he won. He had, finally, managed to fight his way into contention.

In the fourth set Kendrick, who was away from the game for eight months with a shredded tendon in his wrist and weighed in last January at 207lb, showed the first signs that he was cracking.

At 5-5 Nadal earned three break points on the Kendrick serve but the American blinked and handed over the set with a double fault. The fifth set was a formality as the fight from the underdog drained. Another double fault to give Nadal a 3-1 lead in the fifth marked the end of Kendrick's charge with the number two seed expertly closing him out in three hours 46 minutes.

"I could have wrapped it up in the third set," bemoaned the Floridian afterwards. "But I think I'll get the chance again to put it right. I was two points away from winning. I was relaxed. It was the biggest match of my career but there was no pressure."

Insofar as there is no emotion between players when the first ball is tossed, Nadal's meeting with Agassi could mark a tearful end to former world number one's Wimbledon career. Victory for Agassi, who is 16 years older than Nadal, would equally generate ideas of a fairytale ending for the old warrior, who won Wimbledon only once back in 1992. But Agassi has never been so unwise as to think four steps ahead and Nadal is a player who impresses him. "His speed, the way moves on court, he's always playing with high margins because he can cover so much," said Agassi.

"He's very aggressive too. If you get one down he's going to track it down. His movement is probably his greatest asset. And his mind. His concentration, his determination, that's a big weapon too."

The 19-year-old Scot, Andrew Murray must finish his match against Julien Benneteau today after it was suspended because of fading light. Murray led two sets to one before heading to the locker room. Andy Roddick advanced past Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 but the 2002 champion struggling Lleyton Hewitt was also forced in owing to bad light against Korean Hyung-Taik Lee when level at two sets each.