LONDON, July 4: Venus Williams easily repelled Maria Sharapova in a battle of former champions on Wednesday, the day when irritated players finally lost patience with Wimbledon's arcane scheduling.

Ranked 31st in the world, Williams arrived in the fourth round as the underdog but that did not stop the American from bullying second seed Sharapova into submission 6-1, 6-3.

As the shell-shocked Russian swiftly exited Centre Court, a grinning Williams twirled around and declared “I love you all” to the crowd

She next meets fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Sharapova's exit meant world No 1 Justine Henin was the only survivor among the women's top four seeds following the defeats of Jelena Jankovic and Amelie Mauresmo on Tuesday.

While Venus Williams enjoyed a brief workout, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic finally completed three-day marathons to reach the fourth round of a soggy Wimbledon.

In a contest that had been scheduled for Saturday, started on Monday and was hit by five frustrating rain breaks, 2006 runner-up Nadal squeezed past Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5.

Arms aloft, Nadal fell to his knees in relief when he clinched the contest on his sixth match point, the last five coming two days after the first.

“I was here for maybe five years. I don't remember something like this... it was the toughest match of my career,” said Nadal, whose on court action lasted four hours.

He was annoyed that organisers did not allow play on the middle Sunday which is traditionally a rest day.

“I didn't understand why we didn't play on Sunday. The weather was okay, so much better than yesterday, Monday and today too.

“That's very tough for the players. They don't think very much about the players here,” said Nadal, who will have to play every day this week if he is to reach next Sunday's final.

However, if the triple French Open champion needed any inspiration to win a Grand Slam title outside Roland Garros, he would do well to cast his mind back to 2001 when another former Wimbledon finalist, Goran Ivanisevic, survived a three-day semi-final and went on to lift the trophy.

Nadal meets Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round.

Fourth-seeded Serb Djokovic had also started on Monday and he celebrated his 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6 win over Nicolas Kiefer with a silent prayer and sign of the cross.

A misfiring backhand from Kiefer finally ended third round proceedings at 1157 GMT on Wednesday, four days behind schedule. It was not long before Djokovic's anger spilled out.

“They knew the forecast for this week is going to be bad, is going to be a lot of rain. I didn't understand why they didn't have any play on Sunday. Plus Sunday was a very nice day so they would have finished all the matches.”

On a day usually reserved for men's quarter-finals, Andy Roddick found himself lagging behind by a round but his battle with Paul-Henri Mathieu lasted only two days and he dispatched the Frenchman 6-2, 7-5, 7-6.

“Endless waiting in the locker room can get demoralising. Boredom takes over. We all start getting a little loopy,” said the third seed.

The American remained on a semi-final collision course with four-time champion Roger Federer by reaching the last eight without dropping a set.

He will next meet 12th seed Richard Gasquet, who emerged a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 winner in the all-French duel with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Fourth round: 12-Richard Gasquet (France) beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-4, 6-3, 6-4; 3-Andy Roddick (US) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).

Third round: 4-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 7-6 (7-5); 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat 28-Robin Soderling (Sweden) 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 4-6, 7-5.

Women’s singles:

Quarter-finals: 1-Justine Henin (Belgium) beat 7-Serena Williams (US) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; 18-Marion Bartoli (France) beat 31-Michaella Krajicek (Netherlands) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Fourth round: 23-Venus Williams (US) beat 2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) 6-1, 6-3.—Reuters