Nadal endures more water torture

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Rafael Nadal's rain-affected match against Robin Soderling was suspended at 4-4 in the final set and will stretch into a third day at Wimbledon after only 20 minutes of play was completed on Tuesday.

French Open champion Nadal, who squandered a match point in the third round tie on Monday, returned to Court One 2-0 up in the fifth set but a nervous start gave Soderling the break and the Swede held his service game to level the score.

Spain's Nadal pulled off a wonder shot to take the next game, diving to his right and gently dropping the ball over the net.

But then inevitably the rain, which has plagued the match since the players initially began warming up on Saturday, returned after just eight minutes of tennis.

Nadal was on the back foot once again when play resumed, saving two break points. However the session only lasted 12 minutes before the storms returned with the second seed preparing to serve and the score at 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 4-4.

It was the fifth rain break of the match

Lleyton Hewitt ended Guillermo Canas's Wimbledon comeback with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 defeat in a third round encounter.

In a match that started on Monday afternoon and finished more than 24 hours later on a soggy day at the grasscourt championships, Hewitt survived numerous rain breaks to reach the fourth round for the sixth time in his career.

After splitting the first two sets the players were in limbo overnight with Hewitt leading 3-1 in the third set.

At nearly 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, a hugely relieved Hewitt pumped his fist in delight at clinching match point.

"That's the longest and toughest rain delayed match I've ever had to put up with," said 2002 champion Hewitt, whose actual court time amounted to two hours 44 minutes.

"To go on and off so many times, it was a mental battle more than anything out there.

"This is how you win majors. It's not getting frustrated with the situation. Whatever hand you're dealt, you got to deal with it. I felt like I handled it exceptionally well." Canas missed last year's tournament while serving a doping suspension and reached the last eight at the French Open four weeks ago.

But the clay-loving Argentine was unable to find his comfort zone on grass and fell to his sixth defeat in eight meetings against the Australian.

Sixteenth seed Hewitt, who is the only former champion alongside Roger Federer in the men's draw, will next face either fourth seed Novak Djokovic or Germany's Nicolas Kiefer.

As for his chances of adding to his tally of two grand slam titles he said: "Obviously Roger's the favourite but he's in the other side of the draw to me. I'll worry about Djokovic, Kiefer, whoever comes through that one.

"I'm going to have my hands full with either one of those. Djokovic is having a stellar year so far, so he's going to be extremely tough. But if Kiefer knocks him off, then he's obviously playing pretty well.

"Both guys got big serves and return well and move well. It's going to be a tough match up."

Juan Carlos Ferrero ventured into uncharted territory when he beat Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 7-5 6-3 7-6.

His victory means the Spanish former French Open champion has reached the quarter-final of the grasscourt grand slam for the first time and he will now get a crack at Roger Federer.

His two previous fourth round appearances at Wimbledon both ended in defeat. In 2003 he lost to Sebastian Grosjean and two years ago Federer knocked him out.

"I'm playing good. I'm confident and I have nothing to lose," the 27-year-old 20th seed told reporters looking ahead to his clash with four-times champion Federer. "He's human and has a racket the same as me so I will try everything."

Despite being better known for his claycourt game, the former world number one said he was not surprised to have reached the last eight.

"This year is my best result of course," he said. "All the years I think I play really good in here but I couldn't win the fourth round. That was very important for me.

"My goal at the beginning when I saw the draw was to get to the quarter-final. Right now my best goal is to win tomorrow."

Ferrero is enjoying a resurgent career having nearly dropped out of the world's top 100 early in 2005 after a run of illness and injury. He has played Federer twice already this year, losing in Hamburg and Monte Carlo on clay. E-mail to a friend