On the Discovey Channel in the Wimbledon press room a bored official watched among the blizzard of television sets as a crab stood on top of another tearing off all of its legs before leisurely devouring it.
It was an adequate metaphor of what happened to Greg Rusedski on day one.
His Centre Court torture, however, lasted three hours 56 minutes as unknown American Vince Spadea caused the first major upset of the tournament with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 9-7 win.
Rusedski, who has been tinkering with his game, and his serving technique particularly, came up so short that he will now be certainly reviewing his career while Spadea celebrates the end of his 21-match losing streak which stretches back into last year.
"It was outrageous. I thought I'd won it about 16 times," said Spadea. "Heh, I'm still here. I'm in London. It has been a rough year. Everything wasn't clicking. But I competed well today . . . it was a big one wasn't it. "I can lose to anyone but I can also go out and battle. My parents left two days ago. I think they saw the draw and said `Vince . . . man'."
Rusedski made only three of his 19 break-points in a match reflecting not just a bad gameplan but a general malaise.
The pressure on both him and Tim Henman, who plays today, is enormous, but the awfulness of the former quarter-finalist and grass court specialist was too obvious to ignore. He had chances and at one stage was 7-6 up and serving for the match before his confidence also collapsed.
"I tried my best and served for the match. Obviously I'm disappointed. I'll make no excuses. It's not going well at the moment," he said somewhat understatedly.
As nervous girlfriends go, Bridgette Wilson had an easier job than Rusedski's.
When you're cheerleading for your man against no hoper Jiri Vanek in the first round of Wimbledon life is easy.
Pete Sampras' fiancee Wilson, a "gun toting babe" in the movie Last Action Hero, waved and clapped her man through what was more of a surgical procedure than a tennis match, "Pistol Pete" outgunning Vanek in three sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
There was not the pyrotechnics that you would expect in your average Arnold Swarzenegger destruction movie, but that has been the Sampras way every year but one since 1993 when he first won the championship.
His one defeat in 1996 is the only blip. Even heroes get winged once.
Dutchman Richard Krajicek advanced too. No real tremors there except perhaps from the sighs of relief coming from the offices of the All England Club, especially in the light of Rusedski's departure.
Krajicek's 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(3) advance helps the committee swallow their decision of seeding Krajicek, along with Pat Rafter and Rusedski, at the expense of three Spaniards Alex Corretja, Albert Coast and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The "Spanish Three" are higher in the current world rankings than the grass court specialists drafted in and reacted with indigence that they should be singled out by the committee.
Seeding offers protection from the top players for the first week. Rusedski being British was salt on the wound.
He moved from 21st in the rankings to 14th with Tim Henman aslo benefiting, moving from 14th to 8th.
"We believe that if the ATP forced us to play in these tournaments, they should respect the ranking . . . at this moment they (the Wimbledon committee) don't respect the ATP Tour ranking and we believe they should do that," said Corretja.
Sampras, who showed no signs of the pulled muscle in his back which led him to cancel a practice session with Tim Henman before the tournament, said that the Spaniards should have played.
"You really try to rise above it instead of being a little childish about it and going home. It's a bit disappointing. This is the biggest event we have in the game. Everybody should play it."
Krajicek, who several years ago took lessons from a karate expert in Holland to teach him how to fall on grass without injuring himself and who also compared most of the women on the tour with "fat pigs", was more sympathetic than the number one traditionalist.
"Yeah, they have a point to complain. I mean, yeah. On the other hand grass has always been different," he said."
