Wimbledon seventh seed Mark Philippoussis today became the first Australian through to the fourth round with a comfortable straight-sets win over Spain's Francisco Clavet.

Philippoussis won 7-5 6-4 6-4 to move into the fourth round, where he is expected to play Britain's Greg Rusedski in a match of big servers.

It was a powerful performance from the 22-year-old, who had needed four sets to win his first two matches against Xavier Malisse of Belgium and compatriot Mark Woodforde. Philippoussis, ranked 11th to Clavet's 22, was down a set point in the first set, after Clavet secured the first break in the previous game to lead 5-3.

But Philippoussis clawed back to break Clavet back with the second deuce point of the ninth and, after holding for 5-5, broke the Spaniard again before serving out strongly for the set.

Philippoussis broke again in the first game of the second set and went on to take that 6-4, troubling the Spaniard with some thundering winners from the baseline.

Games went to serve in the third set until a backhand winner from Philippoussis gave him the first break to lead 4-3.

He then went on to seal victory on his first match point with an ace.

Also lurking in Philippoussis' quarter of the draw is top seed Pete Sampras, who moved into the fourth round with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 win over British qualifier Danny Sapsford.

And the best of those matchups - particularly for those with a need for speed - will be the slugfest between Mark Philippoussis and Greg Rusedski. With the courts rock hard after a week of perfect sunshine, conditions are ideal for the bigservers.

And, as the speed gun indicates - Rusedski is the fastest server here with a maximum speed of 222kmh, while Philippoussis is third at 215.6kmh - this will be the sort of match that explains why let cord judges are now in the dole queue.

With Rusedski and Philippoussis capable of turning a tennis ball into a yellow blur, the All England Club could no longer afford the insurance premiums.

While they are competitors in the fastserving charts, there is not much history between the pair. Rusedski holds a 20 lead over Philippoussis in their previous matches having beaten the Australian in the first round here in 1997 and in the final of a tournament in Basle the same year.

Since then both players have risen rapidly in the rankings, although there is an argument that the younger Philippoussis (he is 22 and Rusedski 25) has made the greater strides.

The Australian's improved performance under fire was again apparent in his relatively straightforward 75, 64, 64 thirdround victory over Francisco Clavet of Spain. While his serve was not at its best early - he lost his serve in the first set after serving five double faults in two games - and he faced a set point in the first set, he gradually pulled things together and closed out the match with an ace (his total was a relatively modest 14).

However, Philippoussis has good cause to claim his game is not onedimensional. Against Clavet, the biggest gasps from the crowd came when he cranked a couple of enormous forehands to get out of trouble in the first set.

``You know, I won't just be relying on my serve,'' said Philippoussis. ``Like I said, I feel like I'm returning better, I'm volleying better, so it's going to be a match I'm looking forward to, but just another match.''

Rusedski is the only player who has not had his serve broken in the tournament.

``It is very satisfying to come through the first week and not been broken and to only have played one tiebreak, that is a real bonus for me,'' he said.

Rusedski was happy to clean up his straight sets victory over Magnus Norman as the light faded so that he could ``take two days off and get ready to face some bullet serves''.

Asked about the difference between his serve and Philippoussis', Rusedski said: ``Obviously I'm lefthanded, he's righthanded. I usually use a little bit more slice, he hits it a bit more flat and with a bit more kick. And he takes a little more risk, especially with his second serve. He has a tremendous action, one of the best in the world and I don't think mine is too bad either.''

However, Rusedski said there was no secret to mastering the big serve. ``You just wake up in the morning and hope you are seeing everything the size of a football,'' said Rusedski. ``If you don't you have to stand back a bit further and hope for the best.''

Lying in wait for the survivor of the PhilippoussisRusedski shootout will most likely be top seed Pete Sampras, unless something untoward happens in his fourthround match against 87thranked Canadian Daniel Nestor.

A much more intriguing battle looms between Englishman Tim Henman and the rejuvenated Jim Courier, if Courier can be revived in time to take the court after his draining fiveset epic against Dutchman Sjeng Schalken. Courier was on a drip after taking four hours and 24minutes to win the match 76, 36, 36, 75, 1311.

Suffering dehydration, the American was excused from his postmatch press conference, although the gracious Schalken spoke for both players when he said: ``That is why the queues are so long to get in here, for matches like that.''

The CourierHenman match is a replay of their Davis Cup match earlier this year, when Courier clinched the tie for the US by beating the English favorite.

One big - or at least long - name to leave the tournament was third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who was forced to withdraw from his match with Cedric Pioline with the scores tied at one set all because of a hamstring strain.

However, given Kafelnikov has been in appalling form and is no great shakes on grass and Pioline was a finalist here in 1997, Kafelnikov's exit was not a major surprise.