Seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov has become the biggest casualty of the men's draw after he was beaten today in four sets by Guillermo Canas. The Russian, a former champion at the Australian and French Opens has only ever made it to the quarter-final stage at Wimbledon but did not even make it that far this time around as he went down 6-3 1-6 3-6 6-7 to the Argentinian on Court Two.
Kafelnikov looked particularly out of sorts throughout the match and made numerous unforced errors while Canas brilliant baseline shots had the Russian running all over the court. Canas did go a break down in the fourth set giving Kafelnikov a slim hope of getting back into this tie but the Argentinian recovered to bring the set to a tie-break and he had little difficulty taking that 7-2 to set up a fourth-round tie with Sweden's Thomas Enqvist.
"It was very disappointing," Kafelnikov said afterwards. "I had the opportunities, the chances, but I couldn't take them. I had it in my grasp, that is the disappointing part. The easier it looks, the tougher it gets. I'm realistic - I realistically see that time is going by. With every tournament, I have less chances of winning it. Next year, you know, I will be 28 and there are so many young players who are trying to make a statement in this tournament," he added.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
