Former Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi enjoyed a comfortable opening victory against Holland's Peter Wessels to set up a second round clash with British number four Jamie Delgado. The second seed was made to work in the first set, which went to a tie-break, but once he asserted himself there, it proved an easy passage for the American as he eventually won 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court.
Agassi has not played since his surprise exit from the French Open at Roland Garros and when the first 12 games of this first round tie went with serve, the Wimbledon crowd began to wonder if another shock was on the cards. However, the match turned in the tie-break when Wessels failed to win a single point on his usually powerful serve and succumbed to Agassi 7-1.
This seemed to inspire Agassi to up his game while Wessels looked understandably deflated by his failure to take the upper-hand against the crowd-favourite. Agassi immediately broke the Dutchman's serve in the opening game of the second set and although Wessels fought hard, he could not do enough to break back and Agassi held on to take the second set 6-4.
A further break of serve in the third set was enough to give Agassi a deserved victory and the second seed will now face 24-year-old British hopeful Jamie Delgado, who put in an impressive performance to overcome former French Open champion Andrei Medvedev in straight sets 6-2 6-4 7-5.
"Ultimately I felt pretty good," said Agassi afterwards. I think the first set I got a little lucky. He was serving around 85% going into the tie-breaker and serving big and then he missed I think every first serve. All of a sudden he double-faulted and had to deal with his second serve for the first time in the match. Then I got an early break in the second and I served well today. I was executing my shots and felt very clean on my groundstrokes. I made the first serve when I really needed and at the end I felt pretty good about it," he added.
Of his upcoming second round match against Delgado, Agassi said: "I got to see him play a little bit against Medvedev. He's obviously playing pretty well to have such a convincing win. He's definitely not going to pose the threat in the same way my opponent did today. I'll have a chance to really work my way into my game from the baseline. I'll have to certainly take it to him because it looked like he's playing well."
Delgado himself is relishing the opportunity of coming up against the world's second best player. "It is a great opportunity for me - I've never played anyone as good, I mean, he's maybe one of the all-time greats of the game. It is a great chance for me to show what sort of player I am on the big stage. It's definitely a time to go for it. They don't get much better than Agassi."
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
