The sight of Lleyton Hewitt departing from the Wimbledon stadium on Saturday evening arm in arm with Kim Clijsters just about summed up how the championships has been for both players after the first week.

Hewitt, who again chopped his way through a tough match against Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, advanced to the fourth round where he is now just one match away from a likely meeting with Andre Agassi in the quarter-finals.

For Clijsters, Spain's Angeles Montolio held little threat after the first 7-5 set. From there on it was, as the whole week has been so far, something of a Wimbledon love affair. The Spaniard was rationed to just two games.

But as Goran Ivanisevic said after his taming of Andy Roddick; "week two is another tournament. It starts again." In the men's draw that means the seeds' relative protection from the players they most fear is removed and they begin to face each other.

Hewitt's anticipated meeting with Agassi, assuming he gets past French clay court specialist Nicolas Escude, will gauge just how the Australian counter-puncher, who is now on a run of 15 straight wins on grass this year, measures up to one of the best players of his generation. Agassi at 30 may well look at Hewitt, 10 years his junior, and see much of himself. While Hewitt may not have the quick hands or anticipation of Agassi, he has the bombast and spleen of Jimmy Connors.

In Agassi, who breathlessly pushed aside Chile's Nicolas Massu in three sets, allowing him just four games, the tournament has a player who, on form, has no weakness.

He has played nine sets of tennis in three matches with Massu's demolition defying the convention of where he is in the biggest Grand Slam Championship in the world.

The second seed took a mere 81 minutes. He is looking incredibly dangerous.

In fairness to Hewitt he has never declared that he can win the championship. In fact the opposite. "I give myself an outside chance," he said last week. But even with that cautious approach, he expects to meet Agassi.

"Whatever happens I'm going to have to step it up a gear in the second week, that's for sure," he said. "It was a tough, tough match, much tougher than I thought it would be.

"In the past I've pressed the panic button when I've been in a tight situation but that isn't happening now."

For Agassi, he is simply pleased that either Ivanisevic or Greg Rusedski will depart after today and, presumably, that president Clinton is not expected in the Royal Box to precipitate another spectacular collapse. "I'm glad one of them has got to lose," he said.

But his observation that the wearing of the grass on the courts has changed may benefit his hope of claiming a second championship.

"Now the grass is getting worn behind the baseline more than it is in the centre of the court. I feel a lot more comfortable now with the consistency of the bounce. That's going to help those who need a good look at the ball."

The two left handers Rusedski and Ivanisevic, who are in the top half of the draw are sifting through despite not being seeded. One of them is now certain of a quarter-final place and a good chance of making the semi-final.

If Marat Safin can keep his mind intact to beat Arnaud Clement, the fourth seed will face one of the big servers to advance, a match that Rusedski and Goran feel they could win.

The Briton, whose career was under threat before the championships has come to realise the importance of enjoying the game while he can. The fact that Ivansevic possesses a record of eight straight wins fails to unnerve him.

"He's had eight of his nine lives," quipped Rusedski. "Anyone in the last 16 can be champion but I've not even started thinking of it." Sampras has because he is asked after every match.

While the record-breaking American has demonstrated amble ability to carry the silver off for an eighth time, he has also shown some atypical lapses in concentration.

Up against one of the game's most fluid movers in Roger Federer, the 15th seed, Sampras is overwhelming favourite. A solid game against a transcendent game does not leave much scope for debate.

Even at 29 Sampras is unlikely to waver for a second time as he did against journeyman Barry Cowan.