There was a time when Andre Agassi could do without the All England Club, its traditions and, especially, its courts.
When he was too cool and too technicolor to wear white, when he was unsure whether his gifted returns and baseline strokes would win on grass.
Not these days. Agassi, one of five men with a career Grand Slam, realizes there might not be too many major tournaments in his future, so he focuses his efforts on preparing intensely for each one, Wimbledon included.
He'll be ranked No. 1 -- at 33, the oldest to lead the ATP Tour -- and seeded No. 2 behind defending champion Lleyton Hewitt when play begins Monday.
"I grab these moments a lot tighter than I used to," Agassi says.
"I don't have a lot of time left, regardless of how long I can stretch it. The question to me is not how long I have. It is where I stand now, and what my goals are -- what I am still able to accomplish."
Hey, the guy even went out and played a grass-court tuneup at Queen's Club, reaching the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Andy Roddick.
In the past, Agassi usually skipped such events, coming cold to Wimbledon, where he won the first of his eight Grand Slam titles in 1992. He also was runner-up in 1999 to seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, who has withdrawn from every tournament he entered this year and might never play again.
This will be the first Wimbledon since 1988 without Sampras. One without Agassi can't be too far off.
"I do believe that as you get older, you have a stronger ability to embrace the rare moments, and you become more aware of how rare they are," Agassi says. "To win Wimbledon again would be quite an incredible accomplishment for me."
The locals, of course, would rather see a first-time champion: Tim Henman, to be precise. Henman never fared as well at other majors as here -- but his countrymen aren't concerned about other majors.
They want a British men's champion at Wimbledon to succeed Fred Perry in 1936.
How intense is the attention on Henman, a semifinalist four of the past five years? One front-page headline after Agassi and Sampras were upset in the second round last year: "No pressure Timbo, but choke now and we'll never forgive you."
"There's going to be a lot of pressure and expectation just like always on him, but he handles it as well as anyone," said Hewitt, who eliminated Henman last year. "What he's done making semifinals year after year is pretty impressive."
Discussion of potential Wimbledon female champions tends to be limited to the Williams sisters and the Belgians who met in the French Open final: Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters.
One Williams or the other has won the last three Wimbledons -- top-seeded Serena last year; No. 4 Venus the previous two -- and they could meet in another final.
Henin-Hardenne has beaten Serena Williams twice this season, including in the French Open semifinals. Venus, meanwhile, has just one title this year, after claiming 13 over the preceding two seasons.
Is one of the Williams' biggest edges -- intimidation -- disappearing?
"That aura of invincibility that they had after the Australian Open has definitely shrunk," Martina Navratilova says. "The other women have a lot more confidence in the ability to put a dent in there and maybe even win, not just hold their own."
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