TENNIS in DEPTH.

Wimbledon officials have begun their investigation into the incident in which Romanian Victor Hanescu apparently spat at the crowd before quitting his third-round men’s singles match.

The 28-year-old from Bucharest had won the opening two sets on tie-breaks and had match points in the third. But a tie-break went against him and his German opponent Daniel Brands then levelled the Court 18 match by taking the fourth set 6-3.

Hanescu fell behind in the deciding set before the apparent spitting incident amid suggestions that he had been heckled by spectators.

He then appeared to deliberately foot-fault and double-fault before retiring from the match, citing a leg injury for which he received treatment at court-side during the match.

Four spectators were arrested on Court 18 but it is not known whether the incidents were linked.

In a statement, Championships referee Andrew Jarrett said: “Victor Hanescu retired from the match due to a leg injury. The referee’s office is reviewing further information from this match.”

Jarrett began his investigation this morning but there is unlikely to be a swift conclusion.

Hanescu, who was given a seeding when Ivo Karlovic withdrew on the eve of the event, is not playing in the men’s or mixed doubles and left the Championships immediately after ending his singles match.

“We have started the process of looking into exactly what happened,” said a spokesman for the All England Club.

“The umpire issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct that covers things like spitting and swearing.

“The referee will be talking to the umpire and anyone else who can shed light on the incident.

“The umpire’s report will obviously be considered along with any other witnesses that we have from our side and then the referee will obviously look at those and any other footage he’s got available to him with his colleagues.”

A spokesman for the Association of Tennis Professionals, who run the men’s game, said there would be no comment from the organisation until after grand slam supervisors and referees complete their investigation.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said four men were being questioned under the Public Order Act after Hanescu had complained to officers.

The spokeswoman said: “Police were called to Court 18 following a disturbance.

“Four youths were arrested. They have all been taken to a south London station under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.”

Hanescu could face severe punishment from tournament officials.

A standard offence of unsportsmanlike conduct carries a maximum fine of 10,000 US dollars (£6,600).

Under grand slam rules, any act deemed to be “flagrant and particularly injurious to the success of a tournament” can be judged as a “major offence of aggravated behaviour”.

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 Jelena Jankovic was in no mood to dally. She won in straight sets against the 28th-seed, Russia’s Alona Bondarenko, in 57 minutes.

Jankovic completed a first-set whitewash in double-quick time before shrugging off a knee problem and a revitalised opponent to win 6-0 6-4.

She had beaten Bondarenko in 10 of their previous 11 meetings and began their latest joust almost flawlessly.

Jankovic hit 12 winners and made just three unforced errors as she wrapped up the first set in 14 minutes.

The 6-4 6-2 score-line might suggest otherwise, but five-time champion Venus Williams was made to work hard for her third-round win over Alisa Kleybonova.

Kleybonova, a 20-year-old Muscovite who hits the ball with an almighty wallop, stunned Williams by racing into a 3-1 first-set lead.

Williams hit back in typically powerful fashion, breaking twice to win the set.

But Kleybonova stretched her feted opponent all the way in a second set lasting a minute short of an hour.

The Serb, who is seeded fourth, will now play Vera Zvonareva of Russia, who beat Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer 6-4 6-2.

“I’m happy with the way I’m playing,” said Jankovic, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. “Especially today, in that first set I played really well. That’s the game I would like to play. That’s the real me.

“It’s something I’ve been working on for a while: trying to play more aggressively, serving well, and playing very well in the returning games and coming to the net. I think I did pretty well today overall. I hope I can continue like that.”

Jankovic was earlier joined in the fourth round by the 11th seed Marion Bartoli, who won in straight sets against the Hungarian Greta Arn.

Bartoli, who lost to Venus Williams in the 2007 final and is seeded 11th this time round, completed a comfortable win, 6-3 6-4, in exactly 90 minutes.

The Frenchwoman, who reached the last four in the warm-up event at Eastbourne, has yet to concede a set.

Bartoli will play Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova for a place in the quarter finals. Pironkova was leading 6-4 2-0 when an injury forced her opponent, the Russian Regina Kulikova, to retire.

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Former champion Lleyton Hewitt eased to a straight-sets victory over fellow seed Gael Monfils at Wimbledon to set up an intriguing fourth-round contest against Novak Djokovic.

Hewitt, who has undergone two hip operations in the past two years, moved around Centre Court well during his 6-3 7-6 (11/9) 6-4 triumph.

The 23-year-old Frenchman offered little resistance to the 2002 winner’s serve until the third set and spurned the chance to put Hewitt under pressure when he wasted three set-points during the tie-break.

Novak Djokovic thrashed Spain’s Albert Montanes 6-1 6-4 6-4 to march into the fourth round of Wimbledon.

The Serbian third seed was taken to five sets by Olivier Rochus in his opening match at the All England Club but has failed to drop a set since.

Montanes, the world number 31, rarely troubled the hugely impressive Djokovic throughout a one-sided match that took one hour and 41 minutes to settle.

Djokovic’s serve – he fired 11 aces – did most of the damage with Montanes failing to secure a single break point as he sought to secure his first appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam.

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Justine Henin will play fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters in the last 16 at Wimbledon after the pair powered through their third-round matches.

Eighth seed Clijsters swept past Maria Kirilenko 6-3 6-3 to continue her smooth progress on her return to the All England Club after four years away.

Henin, the 17th seed, saw off Nadia Petrova 6-1 6-4.

The two Belgians have met twice this year, with Clijsters winning both matches in third set tie-breaks.

It is the first time since 2006 that both Henin and Clijsters have been in action at Wimbledon after each of them came out of spells in retirement over the last 12 months.

Clijsters had a midday start on Court Two for her third-round match and was in clinical mood from the outset.

She stormed into a 3-0 lead within nine minutes and although Kirilenko, a quarter-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, managed to slow the Belgian’s progress she never threatened an upset.

The Russian did recover an early break in the second set but Clijsters restored her advantage immediately and wrapped up the win after just 62 minutes.

Clijsters, the US Open champion, has been in commanding form throughout the first week, losing just 14 games in her opening three matches.

If anything, her compatriot was in even more dazzling form as she began her match over on Centre Court.

Henin is known for her elegant backhand but it was the forehand in particular that shone as she broke three times to win the first set in 27 minutes.

It was always going to be tough to maintain such a high level but Henin’s serve dropped off dramatically, from 81% of first serves made in the first set to 30% at the start of the second.

Petrova went into the match on the wrong end of a 13-2 record against Henin, and having lost twice to the Belgian already this year, but the 11th seed was starting to look like she believed until the four-time French Open champion rediscovered her form.

After three break points went begging at 3-2, Henin stepped in and swiped a backhand return away for a clean winner before a quickfire service game had her in the lead once again.

Petrova stuck with Henin until it came time to serve to stay in the match – and a poor volley and a double-fault saw her fall 15-40 down before a backhand floated long on match point.

Henin took the applause of the Centre Crowd as she left, and she will almost certainly be back there on Saturday for the showdown with Clijsters.

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World number one Rafael Nadal survived a huge scare against Robin Haase in round two as Wimbledon 2010 threw up yet another thrilling encounter.

The second seed twice had to come from behind before beating his 151st-ranked Dutch opponent 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-0 6-3.

Nadal was broken when serving to stay in the first set and, after rallying in the second, was stunned in the third.

But the Spaniard outclassed Haase from there on in to seal the match.

Robin Soderling is flying the Swedish flag alone in the men’s singles but looks capable of carrying on the country’s rich tradition of Wimbledon success.

His compatriot Bjorn Borg ranks among Wimbledon’s greatest champions and Stefan Edberg was a two-time winner, so Soderling has plenty to live up to.

On Thursday the sixth seed beat Spain’s Marcel Granollers 7-5 6-1 6-4 in the second round, and following his appearances in the last two French Open finals the 25-year-old is now emerging as a contender for grasscourt glory.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to dig deep to overcome rising star Alexandr Dolgopolov in a gruelling second-round clash at Wimbledon.

Ukrainian Dolgopolov fought back after slipping two sets behind only for Tsonga, the French 10th seed, to edge the decider and complete a 6-4 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 5-7 10-8 victory.

It was only 21-year-old Dolgopolov’s second Grand Slam event – he reached the third round at the French Open last month – and second professional tournament on grass.

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Maria Sharapova was given a useful workout as she booked her place in the third round of Wimbledon with victory over spirited Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru.

The 16th-seeded Sharapova dropped just one game in her opener against Anastasia Pivovarova on Tuesday but faced a more testing examination as she registered a 6-1 6-4 triumph in the Court One clash.

After dominating a lop-sided opening set, the Russian had to dig a little deeper in the second as Olaru forced a break of serve, but Sharapova always had enough in reserve.

Seeds Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta both breezed into the last 32 of Wimbledon on Thursday.

Pole Radwanska maintained her fine record at the All England Club by surging through to the third round in straight sets.

The 21-year-old seventh seed has reached the quarter-finals in each of the last two years, and brushed aside Italian Alberta Brianti 6-2 6-0 on Court 18 to show her grasscourt pedigree.

Radwanska reached the fourth round as a 17-year-old and is seeded to meet defending champion Serena Williams in the quarter-finals this year.

Meanwhile, Pennetta, seeded 10, was equally as convincing as she crushed Monica Niculescu 6-1 6-1.

Over in just 52 minutes, the match was 20 mintues shorter than Radwanska’s.

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John Isner finally brought an end to the longest match in tennis history on Thursday as he broke the serve of Nicolas Mahut to secure a 70-68 victory in the deciding set of their first-round Wimbledon encounter.

After 11 hours and five minutes on Court 18 and with a raft of records having been broken, 23rd seed Isner found two crucial winners to break the resistance of the Frenchman in the 138th game of a remarkable set.

The pair first walked on court on Tuesday, and Isner – who hit 112 aces in the match – secured a 6-4 3-6 6-7 (7/9) 7-6 (7/3) 70-68 triumph to bring the curtain down on one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the All England Club.

Upon the completion of the match – and a final set that lasted eight hours and 11 minutes – the All England Club announced the two players and match umpire were to be presented with awards to mark their achievement.

Both players appeared to be spent forces at the end of the gruelling encounter, but received their mementoes with good grace before being asked to reflect on the match.

Isner said of his vanquished opponent: “The guy’s an absolute warrior. It stinks someone had to lose.

“To share this with him was an absolute honour. Maybe we’ll meet again somewhere down the road and it won’t be 70-68.”

Mahut was gracious in defeat, admitting that despite the gruelling nature of the contest it had been a tussle savoured by both men.

“At this moment I’m just really thankful. It was amazing today,” Mahut said.

“John deserved to win. He served unbelievable, he’s a champion.

“It was really an honour to play the greatest match ever at the greatest place for tennis. It was very long but I think we both enjoyed it.”

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It is a little known fact, and one that has been kept secret for more than 60 years, that Jarrko Niemenen’s grandfather was a hero in the second World war. As a young sympathetic Finnish resistance fighter Vladimar Niemenen managed to hide from both the German and Russian authorities, and to eventually make his way to Sweden then on to London.

In London he was recruited into MI 5′s secret ‘Freedom’ section. During his training he met with a tall English gentleman who at the time was known by the nickname ‘Batty’. They became friends, and survived numerous dangerous missions together. Vladi saved Batty’s life in France, and was owed a debt by Batty’s family, the Mountbatens.

After the war Vladi returned to Helsinki, while Batty went on to India before returning to London to marry the daughter of GeorgeVI.

Today at Wimbledon, Batty’s wife will be presented to Vladi’s grandson on Centre Court in a brief ceremony to honour that debt.

And Andy Murray has the arrogance to believe she is coming to see him!

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