A packed Centre Court crowd rose in their seats as 12th seed Henman applied the killer blow to finish off sixth-seeded Rafter 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 to make the quarter-finals for the third consecutive year. Defending champion Sampras charged into the fourth round after a faultless display on Centre Court.

The top seed brushed aside 17th-ranked Swede Thomas Enqvist 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 in a match carried over from Friday. He now meets Sebastien Grosjean of France, who upset Spain's Felix Mantilla in straight sets.

Fourteenth seed Goran Ivanisevic beat Daniel Vacek 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the woman's draw Serena Williams pulled out from the tournament due to injury. The 16-year-old American was trailing Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 7-5, 4-1 when she retired because of a calf injury suffered in the third game ofthe opening set.

How the seeds fared

Seedings in prefix:

Men's singles (3rd round): 1-Pete Sampras (US) bt Thomas Enqvist (Swe) 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3), 9-Richard Krajicek (Neth) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) 6-4 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4), 14-Goran Ivanisevic (Cro) bt Daniel Vacek (Czech Rep) 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-4, Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) bt 16-Felix Mantilla (Spa) 6-0 7-6 (10-8) 6-2

Women's singles (3rd round): 3-Jana Novotna (Czech Rep) bt Corina Morariu (US) 6-3 6-1, 7-Venus Williams (US) bt Chanda Rubin (US) 6-3 6-4, 10-Irina Spirlea (Rom) bt Surina de Beer (SA) 6-4 6-4

Other results

Men's singles (3rd round): Todd Martin (US) bt Todd Woodbridge (Aust) 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4, Francisco Clavet (Spa) bt Thomas Johansson (Swe) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-3, Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) bt Vladimir Voltchkov (Bela) 3-6 6-1 5-7 6-2 6-1
Women's singles (3rd round): Virginia Ruano-Pascual (Spa) bt Serena Williams (US) 7-5 4-1 retired.