Andre Agassi celebrated his personal millennium on Tuesday with victory at the Stella Artois Championships in his 1,000th professional match.
The 33-year-old juggled swirling winds and a lively Peter Luczak to win 7-6, 6-4.
It was a fitting milestone win on Queen's Club's grass Centre Court, mirroring the success he enjoyed in his first match 17 years ago.
Then, with flowing blonde hair and bucket-loads of attitude, he beat John Austin in the first round of an event in La Quinta, California.
The 998 matches in between have featured some of the most scintillating tennis, earning Agassi the world No. 1 spot and eight grand slam titles.
"When I started out I wouldn't have thought any of my 1,000 matches would have come on grass," smiled the player who dodged Wimbledon for four of his first five years on the Tour before winning it in 1992.
"It is amazing to look back on it. There's not a lot goes on out there that I haven't seen before but it feels new each time.
"I've never been into quantity, though," he smiled. "For me quality has always been more important so for me to be 33-years-old and make it back to world No. 1, that's something I'm really proud of."
Seeded second here and ranked two in the world, Agassi could next face a fellow former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek in the third round.
Earlier at Queen's, Tim Henman's Wimbledon preparations got off to a hesitant start when the British number one squeezed past Davide Sanguinetti 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Four times a Wimbledon semi-finalist, Henman struggled with his serve throughout the match and was fortunate to survive a match point while trailing 6-5 in the third set.
"It's not the best match I ever played but it is important to come through," he said.
"I wanted to hang around in this tournament for a while longer. Fortunately I was able to do that."
Fourth seed Paradorn Srichaphan was not so fortunate, though. The popular Thai was sent packing by Mario Ancic.
Ancic is hewn from the same stuff as fellow-Croatian Goran Ivanisevic and served impeccably throughout to win 6-3, 6-3.
There were no shocks for third seed Andy Roddick, though, and the American made light work of his first foray on to grass this season by thrashing Rik De Voest 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.
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