WIMBLEDON, England -- They came, they saw, they conquered and then they slumped out.

In just three hours on a surreal summer's day at Wimbledon, Olivier Rochus, George Bastl and Paradorn Srichaphan were suddenly elevated to superstar status as they wielded their rackets to send Marat Safin, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi packing out of the tournament on Wednesday.

Never before had the All England Club witnessed such high-profile upsets on the same day and so early in the tournament. Crowds were left stunned when giant second seed Safin was shown the exit door by diminutive Belgian Rochus, quickly followed by seven-time champion Sampras and 1992 winner Agassi.

But all three failed to capitalize on their huge wins and quietly slipped out in the third round on Friday.

Agassi's conqueror Srichaphan -- ran into yet another previous champion in the form of the towering Dutchman Richard Krajicek, while Rochus and Bastl must have gone into their matches against baseliners Arnaud Clement and David Nalbandian with high expectations.

But the explosive shots that sent the champions -- who own 21 majors between them -- scurrying around court just 48 hours ago, simply failed to surface on the cold and overcast day in South London.

In fact, they could not even manage to win a single set between them.

"I know he beat Agassi but knew that there was a possibility he was going to have a let down after going through such a high," Krajicek said following his 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-2 victory against the Thai. "I guess he just wasn't playing close to the way he did two days ago."

Despite his monumental win against Sampras, Bastl had a rather simple explanation for his defeat.

"It was a bad day in the office," Bastl said after his one sided 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Argentine Nalbandian. "We didn't plan to hit the headlines but things just happened on that day.

"Today it's a loss and that's it."