Seles struggles into last sixteen

London:

Veteran American Monica Seles took another step towards an elusive first Wimbledon title when she came from behind to beat battling Japanese girl Ai Sugiyama to move into the last sixteen. The fourth seed, with nine Grand Slam crowns to her name but still missing a Wimbledon victory, defeated the 26-year-old Japanese 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 97 minutes to book a match-up against Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn in the fourth round. Seles, 28, had beaten Sugiyama in all eight of their previous meetings, but when the Japanese girl took the first set it was the first time she had achieved such a breakthrough in those matches stretching back to 1996. Tanasugarn, seeded 20, advanced to the fourth round for the fifth straight year thwarting a fightback from unseeded American Meilen Tu to win 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 in one hour, 42 minutes. Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva also booked her spot in the fourth round with a straight-sets win over 10th-seeded Italian Silvia Farina Elia. Maleeva, the 19th seed, came away a 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 winner in 98 minutes and now meets either Britain's Elena Baltacha or Elena Likhovtseva of Russia for a place in the quarter-finals. (PTI)