Tommy Haas could have walked away from tennis after his latest shoulder injury, but the former world No2 refused to hang up his racket and now stands between Andy Murray and a fourth-round place at Wimbledon.

Just reaching up to put that racket on the wall has been beyond Haas on too many occasions since he underwent surgery in 2002 and spent 15 months enduring painful rehabilitation.

Haas has been through further keyhole surgery and was troubled by the arm during this year's clay-court season, making the two wins so far in Wimbledon a reason to smile for a player whose life on and off the court has contained more drama than most people should have to endure.

Besides those endless shoulder operations, Haas has broken both his ankles and had to take a break from the circuit six years ago to help nurse his parents back to health after an horrendous car accident left father Peter in a coma for three weeks and mother Brigitte with a badly-injured right arm.

Haas, 30-years-old, was forced to withdraw from Germany's Davis Cup tie with Russia in Moscow last year and two months later underwent toxicological examination in the United States to try and determine why he had become violently ill. There were rumours he had been poisoned.

Wimbledon has also been a problem for Haas and in 2005 he was forced to retire in his first-round match with Janko Tipsarevic after damaging his ankle in the warm up when he stood on a ball. He should have played Roger Federer on Centre Court last year only for a torn stomach muscle to force his withdrawal before a ball was hit in anger.

Given that run of bad luck, you can understand why Haas is adopting a phlegmatic attitude to his latest Wimbledon challenge.

"I am happy that right now I'm injury-free, that I'm capable of playing some of my best tennis at Wimbledon," said Haas. "If I'm not playing, that means something is wrong! When I pulled out of the match with Federer I thought about hanging-around and trying to walk out on Centre Court just to see what it would be like and hopefully, I will play Andy on there.

"There are times where you think you're just going to hang the racquet on the wall and spend your time doing something else. When I was gone for 15 months there was a period when I didn't know if I was ever going to come back."

Haas will go into the Murray match keenly aware that he beat the British No1 in Indian Wells earlier this year, having lost to him a year earlier at the same venue.

A product of the famous Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida, Haas will get an insight into Murray's current threat on grass from fellow Academy product Xavier Malisse, who was totally outgunned yesterday. "I am going to exchange a few words with Xavier but I already know that Andy puts a lot of effort into this tournament," Haas added.

Murray is taking very little time to finish off his matches this year and is now able to dominate the contests with his powerful serve which is earning him cheap points. He will need to produce similar excellence against Haas, whose all round game makes him a tough proposition and one that Murray knows can cause problems. Murray said: "Tommy's a really tough player who is solid off both sides. He serves well, volleys good and has good movement. He doesn't have too many weaknesses and is going to be tricky.

"But, if I serve like I did in my first couple of matches and put as many returns into the court then I'm going to have chances to break serve and put a lot of pressure on him."

British tennis fans need Murray to emerge victorious tomorrow because by 8.10pm last night he was the last Brit standing in the singles after Anne Keothavong and then Chris Eaton departed the tournament.

Keothavong lost to defending champion Venus Williams in straight sets while Eaton found that possessing a big serve was not enough against 25th seed Dmitry Tursunov on Court One.

Eaton lost in straight sets 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 despite the backing of a raucous crowd and his ranking could get into the 400's next week. He said: "I did what I could out there and I am pretty disappointed to lose. I don't know if I could do any more. I am not thinking about the pay cheque because I thought I had a decent chance of winning. It's a dream to play at Wimbledon and it has raised my expectations. I will do everything in my power to be here next year.

The big shock in the men's draw last night was sixth seed Andy Roddick's four-set loss to unseeded Tipsarevic, of Serbia, who won 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6. Roddick, twice the runner up, made too many unforced errors and admitted: "I am pretty distraught and disappointed.

"Any chance I got I pretty much choked it and it's not an easy thing to say but that's what happened. It's like you want something too much and don't get it."

James Blake's unhappy relationship with Wimbledon continued when he was eliminated 6-3, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 by Germany's Rainer Schuettler in the second round. The American ninth seed had never progressed beyond the third round in five previous visits.