Feet of clay no longer impediments to victory

Since Bjorn Borg's last Wimbledon win in 1980, only three natural baseline players have won the title: Jimmy Connors in 1982, Andre Agassi in 1992 and Lleyton Hewitt last year.

In the final 16 of this year's event, there are seven players whose style more suits the backcourt game. Of those players, three or four could win the championship. Agassi, Andy Roddick and the French Open champion, Juan Carlos Ferrera, nose out in front of the pack.

Not so long ago, and even now, clay-court players didn't bother to turn up in London, with Agassi even turning his back on the Wimbledon grass for two years. Now with the slower balls and the courts playing hard because of the good weather, as well as the move toward extinction of natural serve-volley players, they believe they have a chance.

With Roddick playing a brand of tennis that has been, so far, too explosive for his opponents to handle, Swiss player Roger Federer looks the most serious threat to the prospect of a clay-court player adding this name to that of Hewitt. Roddick and Federer are scheduled to meet in the semi-finals if they can both hurdle their biggest opponents in the top half of the draw.

First Roddick will have to dispose of Paradorn Srichaphan today while Federer faces Spain's clay specialist Feliciano Lopez.

Given the relative difficulties they've had in getting this far, Roddick seems to have the upper-hand before they step foot on court. It is Srichaphan's first time in the final 16 of a grand slam but he needed five sets to win his first two matches.

While Roddick reached the semi-finals of this year's Australian Open in sensational circumstances, his run at Wimbledon has been less taxing. In Australia he defeated Younes El Aynaoui in a five-hour match that contained the longest fifth set in grand slam singles history. The 21-19 decider brought the tally of games in the match to 83, making it also the joint-longest men's singles match in grand slam history since the introduction of the tie-break.

While Roddick has contained his occasionally destructive temperament under the tutelage of Brad Gilbert, author of the tennis book Winning Ugly, a text on how to reach the top 10 with moderate talent, Federer has yet to prove that he is anything other than a God-given talent with a laid back but fragile personality.

Roddick has also lost his unmanly visor in an effort to look more intimidating. "Brad told me I looked like Fred Couples, so I binned it," he said.

He also relies on Gilbert's scouting reports, something Agassi was in favour of when Gilbert coached him. But while Agassi focuses on executing his game, Roddick occasionally appears to be trying to execute his opponents. That's his appeal.

Moving through the draw smoothly but not impressively, Agassi meets the big-serving Mark Philippoussis today and if Tim Henman can find a way around last year's finalist David Nalbandian and then probably Ferrero, he could encounter Agassi in the semi-final.

That would tip Henman Hill towards some kind of crowd record but the Argentine Nalbandian is a different prospect to the callow Robin Soderling, whom Henman trounced 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

Henman has been playing better in the last two matches than he did all last year, even though he has faced opponents whose rankings hardly threaten, 157, 131 and 152, while Nalbandian was involved in a five-set slog against Karol Kucera. The British 10th seed hopes his opponent will still be sore today.

"I've never beaten him. I lost to him twice in two really tough matches. Wimbledon finalist I think says enough about him. He's very, very comfortable on these courts," said Henman.

"But I know his game well enough. Certainly I'll talk with Larry (Stefanki) about it and discuss areas that I feel I can exploit and areas where I need to do well."

John McEnroe has said on television that this could be Henman's year. When that was put to the player he looked up to answer with a grin: "He's said that the last four years, hasn't he?"