There are a few things going against Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon. He follows the Jimmy Connors-John McEnroe line in profanity; he is Australian, ergo uncouth and not British, and he beat Tim Henman to prevent him from becoming the first British winner of the Wimbledon preamble at the Queens club since Bunny Austin in 1938.

In the general scheme, a Tim is preferable to a Bunny, but Hewitt's toppling of the biggest/last/only British hope for this year's championship will not endear him to the establishment even if he does turn the crowd on to his way of things.

For Hewitt, the fifth seed, like the number two Andre Agassi, is a wonderful antidote. To the army of complainants who claim the biggest tournament in the world buckles under the weight of big servers and not enough returners or rally merchants, Hewitt is another soothing reassurance that it need not always be that way.

The Australian subdues power, eats it up, throws it back and does it as well as any other player in the world bar Agassi. If there is an original threat to favourite Pete Sampras, who beat Pat Rafter last year when he was not entirely fit nor in top form, it could be Hewitt.

As Sampras said after falling as a Queens semi-final victim to the 20-year-old, who became the first player to successfully defend the Queens title since Ivan Lendl in 1990: "Hewitt moves just great on this surface. He's just going to get better and better."

Hewitt's compatriot Rafter, probably the biggest benefactor of the new seeding system, having been promoted from 10th in the year-round ranking list to third seed at Wimbledon, will also have eyes on the Sampras throne.

Rafter intends to retire at the end of the season and is still cursed with a problematic right shoulder which needed surgery in 1999. His natural game lends itself to grass more readily than higher ranked players such as Marat Safin, who is ranked third in the world but fourth at the All England Club. No surprise in that, given the talented Russian's tendency to disassociate mind and body mid-match.

The 2000 US Open winner, who had Mats Wilander in his corner for the French Open, departed in the third round to Fabrice Santoro, a clay court mule. The defeat was one thing, the score line another. Safin beat the Frenchman 0-6 in the fourth set to send the match into a fifth, which he then pointlessly lost 1-6.

Safin, who has been afforded a surprisingly high seeding, has struggled this season with back injury. Given his talent and record of having been able to last the seven rounds of a Grand Slam, he has still won only one match on the grass and that was last year. His ability could win Wimbledon, but don't put a nickle on it.

Outsiders further down the pecking order appear to be long shots. Juan Carlos Ferrero is an exquisite clay court player but has never put foot inside the gates of Wimbledon before. A steep learning curve is in wait for the Spaniard, who will face players who won't hang around expecting 25 stroke rallys.

Jean-Michael Gambill and, actually, Grag Rusedski are not such outrageous outside bets to advance some way trough the draw. Rusedski is not seeded this year while the American is in at 12.

It was the double-fisted American who raced to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon last year where he took a set off Sampras before the champion stepped up a gear to take the match.

In essence that is where Sampras and Agassi have been able to elevate themselves above the rest of the bunch. They each have a number of gears which they draw on in big competitions.

The question each time they step on court is whether they can find those gears. When they do, no one can live with them, Sampras with his peerless serving, the second almost as destructive as the first, and Agassi's ability to fetch returns, allied with unshakable mental strength, usually prepare excellently. Neither of them have time on their hands, but both are still the players who generally set the standard.

Sampras, who is attempting to equal Bjorn Borg's record of five successive titles, refers to the All England Club as "The Club". As his career has shown, there isn't.