Johnny Watterson on an open men's tournament and a case of normal service from the women Order of play
Wimbledom. These are days of living in the shadow of South Korea and Japan. Wake up. It really is summer. Quick-fire snooze fest or unfolding drama, you can't help noticing that the door, this fortnight, is softly closing on a few careers, opening for others. The reliable war horses, assertive and conditioned into showcasing the tournament into the second weekend, are still active but eyes are casting around for a figure to emerge and finally pull the curtain on the long-running acts of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. It is 10 years since Agassi last won his only Wimbledon, two years since Sampras picked up his seventh.
Before the first sleeve of balls has been pulled from the Centre Court freezer and shaken from their canisters, Wimbledon, however, will already have witnessed the withdrawal of some of the top men.
Already, last year's men's finalists, Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter are out, the loss of Ivanisevic's troubled rantings is bound to make the place a less colourful theatre. Both players have been reduced to spectators by rotator cuff injuries.
Gone too are world number three Tommy Haas, Alex Corretja, a twice French Open semi-finalist, and Marcel Rios, Australian Open runner-up, while three previous French Open champions and clay specialists, Albert Costa, Carlos Moya and Gustavo Kuerton have come up with remarkably credible reasons for not playing the grass.
With Sampras and Agassi in honourable decline, there appears to be some evidence this year for a significant redrafting of the world order on grass. Step forward spitfires Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick, the sleeping giant Marat Safin, Roger Federer and, bless him, Tim Henman.
Before winning the Queens tournament just over a week ago for the third successive year, Hewitt said: "Everywhere I look now there are these 18-year-old kids doing well."
The 20-year-old, who has risen from 722 in the world to the number one ranking in just five years, added: "I'll give myself a chance against anybody on any surface at the moment. That's part of being number one in the world."
Two years ago no one but Sampras would have issued such an implicit challenge and the root of it is not just in the Australian's bombastic and excitable temperament. After winning the Masters Cup in Sydney at the end of last season, Hewitt became the youngest ever top-ranked player, and having fought his way there with typical expletive-driven aggression, he rather likes the position.
"If I get deep into the second week I will give myself a strong chance," he said.
"I will go to Wimbledon in the knowledge that I can win a Grand Slam title after my victory in the US Open last year. I'm a little more experienced on grass now too."
After the French Open, players who were canvassed picked no less than 10 possible winners of Wimbledon. Out of the top eight seeds only Agassi and Sampras have ever won the title. Lugubrious second seed Marat Safin, although a more complete player, looks set to fill the void of Ivanisevic. Safin could well be the Russian verb to self-destruct; although, with a US Open title, he has shown he can contain himself for two weeks.
Growlers they call the little diamond-hard icebergs that sink ocean racing yachts. Australian wild card Mark Philippoussis is a growler, also big-serving Wayne Arthurs and Taylor Dent of the USA, who qualified last year.
Roddick, beaten in the first round at Eastbourne by Hewitt's first opponent at Wimbledon, Jonas Bjorkman, was supposed to step up to the plate this season as a regular home-runner. With his big all round game he can hit the ball out of the stadium, but patience and maturity have been slow in coming his way.
Henman, with a fourth place seeding, may have his best chance this year. But as one to watch? Spare yourself the hype and agony at least until the second week.
Somewhat alarmingly on the women's side, a family trend looks set to continue for the Williams sisters, Serena and defending champion Venus. They currently hold three of the Grand Slam titles; Jennifer Capriati, with the Australian Open, is the only player standing between them and a "Family Slam".
With Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario out of the competition, it has fallen to Capriati and the Belgian duo of Kim Clijisters (seeded five) and last year's runner-up Justin Henin (seeded seven) to upset Richard Williams' ingenious world-domination plan hatched in a Los Angeles ghetto 10 years ago. Both players are in the Venus half of the draw.
Serena's victory over Venus at the French Open - the second major final to be contested by them - threw up the queasy scenario of the sisters hogging the final days of Grand Slams for the next six years.
The jury is still out on the competitive veracity of filial finals and as Martina Hingis noted when the sisters first began to usurp her number one position, if you are not in the family, you have to beat both sisters to pick up a major title.
The waif Henin is all touch and guile and flourishing backhand, the antithesis of the Capriati's, Seles' or Clijister's beefed-up games.
"My best game is on grass, which I showed last year," said Henin. "It (grass) is a very different surface, a surface we only play on for three weeks a year. That adds to its peculiarity."
Although the unranked women tend to beat less seeded players, Russia's Anastasi Myskina and Japan's battling Ai Sugiyama could generate early trouble.
Further up the ranking Jelena Dokic at eight, Amelie Mauresmo at 11, Russia's Elena Dementieva at 14 and the godsend to colour writers, the fabulously idiosyncratic Mary Pierce, currently ranked at 18, have the game for grass.
Dokic and Daniela Hantuchova are players Serena Williams may face in the latter part of the tournament. Seeded 13, Hantuchova has already shocked a fit Hingis this year by beating her in the final at Indian Wells in March before reaching the fourth round of the French Open and falling to Seles.
It is tempting, but folly, to look too far beyond the two Williams sisters. With Hingis and Davenport injured, the only other former winner of Wimbledon in the field apart from slight favourite Venus, is Spain's Conchita Martinez, the 1994 champion who is now aged 30 and is 58th in the world rankings.
"It's easy to say why I like Wimbledon," says the 21-year-old champion, now hoping to emulate Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova in winning three straight championships.
"There's the grass, the atmosphere, the winning and the trophy."
That's four serious reasons for the player whose favourite place is "anywhere that accepts credit cards".
First Round. (MS) Men's Singles, (WS) Women's Singles.
Centre Court 1.0
(MS) H Levy (Isr) v (3) A Agassi (USA), (WS) E Dominikovic (Aus) v (2) S Williams (USA), (MS) (6) P Sampras (USA) v M Lee (Brit)
Court 1 1.0
(WS) J Husarova (Svk) v (3) J Capriati (USA), (MS) C Pioline (Fra) v (2) M Safin (Rus), (23) G Rusedski (Brit) v J Melzer (Aut)
Court 2 12:0
(MS) (14) T Enqvist (Swe) v A Parmar (Brit), (WS) A Kournikova (Rus) v (21) T Panova (Rus), (MS) J Delgado (Brit) v (22) N Lapentti (Ecu), (WS) (7) J Dokic (Yu) v E Tatarkova (Ukr)
Court 3 12:0
(MS) R Krajicek (Ned) v F Squillari (Arg), (WS) (8) S Testud (Fra) v A Barna (Ger), (MS) (5) Y Kafelnikov (Rus) v D Hrbaty (Svk), (WS) I Benesova (Cze) v (9) A Mauresmo (Fra)
Court 4 12:0
(MS) (29) J Blake (USA) v M Zabaleta (Arg), G Bastl (Swi) v J Auckland (Brit), (WS) (13) M Shaughnessy (USA) v L Ahl (Brit)
