Mauresmo Locked in Tight 4th-Round Match

WIMBLEDON, England - Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo was locked in a tight fourth-round match against Nicole Vaidisova that repeatedly was interrupted by rain Tuesday.

Mauresmo lost the first set in a tiebreaker, but was serving for the second set when the day's third rain delay again halted play at Wimbledon.

The fourth-seeded Frenchwoman, who won her first two Grand Slam titles last year, was sidelined following an appendectomy in March and had a groin problem that contributed to an early exit at the French Open.

This year's tournament has been hampered by rain in seven of its first eight days.

Matches on Centre Court and Court No. 1 started at 11 a.m. Tuesday - two hours earlier than usual - because of the backlog of matches. In the only singles match completed by early afternoon, 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova reached the quarterfinals by beating 16-year-old Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3, 6-2.

Kuznetsova will face either Venus Williams or Maria Sharapova in the next round. Williams and Sharapova were scheduled to play later Tuesday.

Among matches interrupted by rain, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and No. 6 Ana Ivanovic both were taken to third sets.

Later, second-seeded Rafael Nadal was scheduled to finish his suspended third-round match against Robin Soderling, while No. 3 Andy Roddick was to face Paul-Henri Mathieu in the fourth round.

On Monday, Serena Williams' mother advised her to stop playing, while sister Venus urged her to continue.

Serena wavered briefly, then decided to keep on going despite a painful calf strain that left her screaming and writhing behind the Centre Court baseline.

"I would have felt weird if I hadn't tried," she said.

A rain delay of nearly two hours bought her a little time to recover and regroup, and with both legs wrapped, she won the third set to beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-2.

The gallant, bizarre victory advanced Williams to the quarterfinals, where she's scheduled to face top-ranked Justine Henin - if she's able.

"She got through," said her mother and coach, Oracene Price. "Can she go through another one? You don't know what the pain's going to be like next time."

It was bad enough against Hantuchova. The injury, described as a spasm-induced left calf strain, struck after Hantuchova hit a forehand winner for a 5-5, 30-15 lead in the second set. Williams grimaced, grabbed her calf, tapped it three times with her racket and crumpled to the lawn.

"I had a very bad acute muscle spasm," Williams said. "Acute, as you know, is a really intense pain."

She remained down for seven minutes, screaming in pain when a trainer massaged the calf.

But she decided to continue, wiping away tears just before the match resumed.

She kept playing for another 11 minutes, hitting shots weakly and walking stiffly in pursuit of the ball. But she managed to hold for 6-all, then won the last two points before rain forced a delay.

"I was literally saved by the rain," Williams said.

Henin had a much less arduous victory, beating No. 15-seeded Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes.

Henin-Williams would be a rematch of the same round at the French Open, where Henin won en route to her fourth Roland Garros title.