2nd July, 2000

Championship wide Open

WIMBLEDON is as wide open going into the second week of the tournament as 
I can remember it.  The world's biggest championships is up for grabs.

Nine of the seeds went inside four days and Pete Sampras is on one leg. It goes 
to show that nothing can be taken for granted at this level because there is always 
somebody pushing up, waiting for their chance.

Unfortunately for Lleyton Hewitt, he was not able to make it through a tricky 
first-round match. If he had, he would have been a huge chance with the way the 
top half of the draw is now.

There is only Sampras and Thomas Enqvist left up there. The bottom half, where I 
am with Mark Philippoussis, is tougher.

Winning Grand Slams is all about taking your chances. On grass, those chances 
come and go quickly. Every point is like gold and when your chance comes, you 
have to be ready.

I have the feeling Philippoussis is on the cusp of something good here. He seems 
to be settled and he
came close last year when he was injured against Sampras in the quarter-finals. If 
he keeps going, he and I could play in the semi-finals, not that I ever look that far 
ahead in the draw. If we do, it will be a great thing for Australian tennis.

This has been a strange tournament, not on 'y because of the number of seeds who 
have gone out, but also for the number of injuries to players.

The US Open last year was a classic example of overplaying by a lot of players. I 
was one of them. I
Think we had seven or eight withdrawais from the men's event. It is a tough 
schedule and the ATP Tour has to come up with an agreement on the schedule 
that gives us some sort of time-off, but it is not going to happen in the near future.

MY form here has been the best it has been for along time. Winning the 
tournament in Holland last week was a real bonus for my confidence coming into 
Wimbledon and the wins I have had over Jamie Delgado and Todd Woodbridge 
have done me a lot of good as well.

I am really looking forward to the rest of the year now after what has happened in 
the past couple of weeks. 1 have a feeling I am going to have another good year 
on the US hardcourts and that is a great feeling to have.

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