"If you break Taylor Dent twice and you lose 6-4, 6-4, that's your fault."

That succinct but telling comment by Argentine Sebastian Prieto effectively summed up the loss he and his compatriot and doubles partner, Mariano Hood, suffered at the hands of Dent and fellow American Scott Humphries yesterday.

In an absorbing Centre Court encounter, the Argentine combination failed to lift their game sufficiently at crucial junctures, though they were able to break the lightning-serving Dent twice in the second set.

It was always a matter of catch-up for the South Americans who dropped service in the second game of the match and only managed to return the compliment in game seven when Humphries was serving. Hood then held serve in game eight to make it 4-4.

However Dent's massive serve produced consecutive aces in game nine as the Americans piled on more pressure. It was again Dent in the 10th game who nullified Prieto's serve with a hat-trick of fabulous shots that took the wind out of the Argentinians.

A ferocious centre-line smash was sandwiched between two backhand returns that left his opponents for dead. Inspired by his partner, Humphries got into the act, whipping a backhand winner past Hood down the line to seal the set.

Again in the second set, the Americans were out of the gate first, grabbing a 3-0 lead. Prieto and Hood had some fight left and, after holding serve in game four, they broke Dent helped by a series of unforced errors by the Americans to make it 3-2.

However, the Argentine offensive faltered in the sixth game as the Dent-Humphries combination broke their opponents at 15 before Humphries held his service for a 5-2 lead. Prieto held his service and, for a second time Dent was broken, to bring the Argentines to within a game of the Americans - but that's as far as they got.

Humphries and Dent, with some sizzling forehand shots, closed the match on Hood's serve.

"Scott helped me out a lot. He's a veteran. When I got broken twice in the second set he calmed me down and we got through. I didn't have my stuff together in the singles, so it's doubles. Hopefully we can do well," said a jubilant Dent afterwards, referring to his singles defeat by Michael Russell.

A sad-looking Prieto pinpointed serving as his and Hood's problem, noting they had difficulty holding serve.

"We broke them three times and we lost 6-4, 6-4. That means we lost service five times. It's not good."

For the pony-tailed tennis player, the disappointment was heightened since he and countryman are regular partners.

Humphries and Dent, by contrast, were in their first match together.

Meanwhile, another American pair - Eric Taino and Michael Russell - did not fare as well, going down 3-6, 6-7 (4-7) to South African duo, Jeff Coetzee and Myles Wakefield. Peter Luczak of Australia teamed up with American Paul Goldstein to send some other Aussies - Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley - back Down Under 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.