Take your pick of a possible winner: Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, Pat Rafter. All three in the bottom half of the draw waltzed through their first-round matches, Hewitt, his usual ball of snarling energy, doing so most efficiently. Sporting a new boot-camp hair-cut like his compatriot and friend Rafter, Hewitt came into the tournament with a perfect 12-0 record on grass in 2001.

Having retained his title at the Wimbledon warm-up event at the Queens Club this year, where he was forced by rain to play two matches in one day against Pete Sampras in the semi-final and Tim Henman in the final, the 20- year-old took only three brief sets against Magnus Gustafsson to secure his passage.

Once again it was the Hewitt return of serve and lightness of foot around court which stood up to the Swede. Offering just one game in the first set, two in the second and four in the third, it was as positive a start Hewitt, who has never won a Grand Slam event, could have hoped for.

But Hewitt, who is hardly on speaking terms with the Australian media, was in no mood to be written up by the rest of the corps.

"I haven't been past the third round here, so I'm not considering myself in the first few of the favourites, that's for sure. I give myself an outside chance," he said.

Agassi, who did most of his difficult work in the first set, finally broke down the big serving Dutchman Peter Wessels. In a match that drew more on patience than anything, Agassi struggled endlessly in the first set to win on a tie break and fracture the resolve of his opponent.

Wessels, serving so well throughout the opening, then missed a succession of first deliveries, handing the tie break to Agassi.

That appeared to be the watershed as a break in the second and third set gave the American the opportunities he needed to see out the match 6-4, 6-4.

It was Agassi's 200th Grand Slam match and he now proceeds to meet a British player for the first time in his career in wildcard Jamie Delgado.

Last year's beaten finalist Rafter came to Wimbledon less prepared than normal, having lost in the opening round of the Dutch tournament at Rossmalen, which he had won for three straight years.

But there were few signs of cobwebs or signs of his famous shoulder injury against Daniel Vacek, who he had beaten three times on grass previously.

The centre court match ended 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 with the Australian showing, through his efficient serve and volleying, just why he is seeded third by the Wimbledon committee.

"I'd no nerves," said Rafter having admitted to choking in last year's final against Sampras. "I felt comfortable. For my arm ... I just popped a few pills and it's better." It's rarely complicated with Rafter.