THE English hacks were on at Boris Becker about the football again yesterday. They mightn't be so keen to talk about it after last night. Like him, the team stayed on course for, the title and, just like his national team, the world number four progressed without displaying the sort of form that had been displayed in other recent contests.

In his first round win over Jean Philippe Fleurian, the "Lion of Leimen" had purred to perfection every aspect of his grass game seemed to have been well honed.

This time, however, there were obvious shortcomings during the early stages. His Spanish opponent, Tomas Carbonell, was allowed to dictate a set which he won 6-4 in 39 minutes.

The pair had exchanged breaks earlier on, but it was in the ninth game that the outsider made his move with two great returns of service from 30 all giving him the edge over the second seed.

The German double faulted at 15-40 to drop his serve again in the next game, and was clearly relieved to strike back as quickly as he did in game four, with Carbonell driving into the net to end a long break point rally and give the three time champion his first real glimpse of the third round.

The Spaniard too openly reacted to the point, which seemed to take the wind out of his sails. And, having lost four of the next five games, he found himself level at a set apiece, but with the ball firmly in his opponent's court.

Sure enough, it was pretty much one way traffic from that point on. The second seed looked comfortable through most of a third set, which he won in 10 games, before overrunning the 27 year old early in the third, when he scored two breaks. Becker meets Grant Stafford of South Africa in the next round.

Hardly flawless stuff, and he was far from entirely happy with the way it had gone. But, unlike his opposite number in women's draw later in the day, he had done the important thing, dug in and braved it out.

"In the second set I had to turn it on, to play best tennis to get back into the match. This should have been a three sets match for me, but he was tough to play against. He has a great return and an excellent forehand. He made some amazing shots to break me."

In addition to the win, Becker's campaign to win a fourth title received a further boost yesterday when his path to the final was further smoothed. Thomas Enqvist, a well regarded Swede who has thus far failed to display the sort of aptitude for the surface that some of his more famous compatriots have done over the years, was seeded at nine for the championship but lost out to world number 20 Malivai Washington of the United States.

The result means that, of the more recognised names, only Wayne Ferreira and Todd Martin remain in Becker's half of the draw and, if either man survives that far, it will be the semi final before Becker has to face him.

One of the men responsible for that scenario, of course, is America's Doug Stark, who beat Andre Agassi on Monday and was still coming to terms with the consequences yesterday. "I've done a lot of interviews for TV add radio and thing but, to be honest I'm happy to do pretty much anything because I haven't had a lot of call to that sort of stuff before," he told yet more members of the press after winning his second round match against over Mark Knowles.

"I rang my mother in St Louis and ABC were there in her house interviewing her, and some friends I stayed with in Little Rock when I was playing, there rang me here to congratulate me, which was wild.

"The only problem is my hotel. They keep asking me when I'll be going, I think they need the room."

Always remember, though, Doug, no matter how bad things get there's always somebody out there with problems worse than yours.

. Dublin based northerner Clare Cutran was yesterday accepted into the draw for Junior Wimbledon which gets under way at the All England Club on Saturday.

The 18 year old from Belfast, who was the youngest player to represent Ireland in the Federation Cup, will go into tomorrow's draw for the singles and is likely to fix up a doubles partnership for the tournament once she arrives to compete.

Her inclusion in the event is a hard earned reward for some fine performances on the ITF junior tour which brought her a place in the top 100 young players in the world last year.