Jankovic straight through in quest for first slam title

The women's second seed Jelena Jankovic continued her serene progress at Wimbledon yesterday with another straight-sets victory. Jankovic, who won last year's mixed doubles with Jamie Murray, defeated the Spanish wild card Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-1, 6-3 on Court Two, on a day when third seed Maria Sharapova disappeared from her half of the draw with a defeat to her fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.

The pair had been scheduled to meet in the semi-finals, but Jankovic could still face the defending champion Venus Williams in the quarter-finals as she seeks to win her first Grand Slam title. The French Open finalist Dinara Safina also enjoyed a comfortable victory, the ninth seed beating Su-Wei Hsieh, of Taipei, 6-3 6-2. But the 13th seed Vera Zvonareva was not so fortunate, the Russian losing a first-set tie-break 12-10 and, after winning the second 6-4, losing the decider 6-3 to Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Tanasugarn is ranked 60th in the world, but won a grass court warm-up title before Wimbledon and has reached the fourth round three times at the All England Club.

The women's field lost one former champion, 1999 winner Lindsay Davenport, when she withdrew with a right knee injury before her second-round match against Argentina's Gisela Dulko. Davenport, 32, had limped past Renata Voracova in three sets on Tuesday and decided she wasn't fit to play after practising yesterday. "It's just really inflamed and painful," she said. "I rested yesterday and did treatment. After warming up, I felt like I was 25, maybe 30 percent. That's not good enough for a second-round match."

It was Davenport's 13th Wimbledon visit and could be her last. Asked if she would be back, she said: "I guess not. It did come into my mind today that it is my last chance to play here."