TENNIS/Wimbledon: The curtain closes on week one and another tournament begins. That's how the players see it. The big names who have survived breathe a sigh of relief, and those who have never been this far before look towards a significantly more difficult future.
Players in the men's draw might glance over their shoulders and see a devastated field denuded of seeds. Only two players from the top 20 remain, Lleyton Hewitt (1) and Tim Henman (4), and both are in the top half which throws together the possibility of tasty meeting at the semi-final between the natural fighter Hewitt and the mild-mannered English player. If that happens their feet should scorch the grass.
Hewitt's destruction of compatriot Julian Knowle on Saturday was in striking contrast to Henman's marginal but fine win over Wayne Ferreira. Just quite how Henman will handle the willpower and in-your-face pugnacity of Hewitt will be of interest to many who believe that Henman's mind is as weak as those furtive, self-aware digs he often gives the air to pep himself up.
Watch Hewitt explode all over the Centre Court, question calls, berate line judges, swear, aim for body shots at the net and generally belly-ache the most famous court in the world.
At the heart of that blizzard is also a Grand Slam-winning talent, which has been shaped on the Agassi model. Wonderful reactions and leg speed in picking up serves and the ability to return with venom off any height or at any angle gives Hewitt an all-roundness that most players don't possess.
And in that whirl of character Hewitt also has durable concentration. After three, four hours, his impressive court nastiness is barely tempered.
But this is Henman's best chance for years. His game of touch and controlling the net off serve is grass-friendly and he is in good form. But for all the shouting and the raucousness of the home support, you sometimes think the more refined English player rather belongs in the Dan Maskell era.
As ever, that's running ahead, and last week should have been an antidote to looking down the road more than a match at a time. Greg Rusedski has been playing the quiet boy in the bottom half of the field, wonderfully content that Henman is drawing the heat.
Rusedski faces Belgian Xavier Malisse, not a player renowned for grass court tennis, and a win there would take him through to meet either former winner Richard Krajicek or Australian Mark Philippoussis. Krajicek is the only remaining player to have won Wimbledon, and a few years ago he famously lit a bonfire under himself by injudiciously referring to some of the women competitors as "fat pigs".
But the Dutch player, like Philippoussis, is returning from chronic injury and few can see how either will last for two weeks. Krajicek had given himself two matches before Agassi departed. Everything for him now is like a good party where the music hasn't stopped.
Otherwise, in the bottom quarter a mix of clay court players and Wayne Arthurs persist. Arthurs is a fearsome Australian whose serve has not yet been broken. That his father played Davis Cup for Ireland should be enough to claim him, but even with the booming serve, which disposed of 12th seed Novak in the second round, thoughts are that the 31-year-old, London-based player may not have enough to claim the title.
The women's draw has been relatively serene in comparison. Some attempts have been made by the crowds to wrap their arms around the underdog and occasionally players have obliged. But the field remains studded with those names you'd expect, and the Williams sisters' shadow is still large. Number one Venus dropped a first set 5-7 to the unheralded Maureen Drake, but then came back to illustrate that if her game is in order, there are few who can live with her.
Drake then departed 6-2, 6-1 as Williams headed for the physiotherapist for attention to her left knee, where tendonitis has again flared up.
Monica Seles, too, is through in the Venus half of the draw, and after a first-set scare against Ai Sugiyama, the 28-year-old indicated her desire to retire. Seles seems simply battle weary.
"I think I am going to take a year off and just have a life," she said. "Just enjoy time with my friends and family without a schedule. Since I was seven or eight years old I've always had a schedule.
"I have no idea what direction I want to go towards. I don't think it will involve tennis."
On the former world number one's side of the draw is Justin Henin, the beaten finalist here last year. She is recovering from bronchitis and was pushed hard on Saturday by 17-year-old Myriam Casanova, the youngest player in the draw.
Last year Henin's precocity announced itself with the solo run to the final day. A quarter-final with Seles for a possible meeting with Venus is how the planners see it.
In the bottom half, Serena Williams tumbled (literally) a lot against Els Callen in the third round, but again came up big and showed what a ferocious competitor she can be with her high-volume game. Her protected path from seed two and that of Jelena Dokic is likely to cross in the quarter-finals. But Dokic must first deal with Daniela Hantuchova, the 11th seed. Both teenagers are regular tabloid fodder, with Dokic in possession of more experience at this level.
The other likely quarter-final pairing looks like being Jennifer Capriati and Amelie Mauresmo. Mauresmo, although wonderfully talented, occasionally suffers from severe mind wander, and if she can beat the unseeded Laura Granville for a fixture with the American third seed, that type of lapse will be fatal.
Capriati has not yet dropped a set and that suggests she is probably the biggest threat to last year's champion, Venus, and her little sister.
