Of course your delight in this will depend on how you feel about having to struggle home on the train with a

Of course, your delight in this will depend on how you feel about having to struggle home on the train with a top seed's laundry. But after his semi-final victory, Becker took the time to express-deliver, to someone in the fourth row, a set of sweatbands and a shirt. These may in fact afford a limited view of the court, but they do set you up as the potential recipient of a whole range of tennis and sporting goods, thoughtfully surrendered by the departing players. They have time only to react.Clearly, given the BBC's coverage, actually going to Wimbledon is no substitute for sitting at home and watching it on the telly, but, for anyone contemplating sending off for tickets for next year, it's become clear that the seats to have are those directly behind the umpire's chair. When Agassi crouched to receive serve in that final tie-break, was he working out what he wanted to happen under pressure, or was he just trying to concentrate on getting the ball back? This is what is ironic about all the psycho-chat that comes with Wimbledon, both from the interview booth and the commentary box with its perpetual variants on the question "What will be going through her mind now, Anne?" At this level, the players have no time to think. Either you were in a zone or you were on a plane - the next one home.It wasn't just the rapidity of Brad's style that made some of this hard to apply to the game we then saw.

"Tennis," he said, helpfully, "is about dealing with the situations, using what you've got on the day." Agassi's preparation before facing Becker was going to involve deciding "what he wants to happen under pressure". In fact, the Wimbledon meter clocked Brad's delivery at 139mph, making him the fastest server of tennis-babble in the tournament's history. But Pete had been out-psyched earlier by Brad Gilbert, Agassi's coach and the author of Winning Ugly Brad is one focused talker We're looking at a zoned wordsmith here. "There are times when he's just not there," Sampras went on, "and that's what makes him dangerous."As psychoanalysis goes, this was pretty unconscious. But he swallowed hard and made it. Later, Pete used the tongue to commend his opponent. "He was unconscious there for a second," Pete said, "unconscious" being, as far as one can make out, a term of approbation in tennis, akin to "in a zone" and "thoroughly focused".

Then he tamed it - folded it in half, or something - and kept it in, which was generally agreed to advance his game, at least aesthetically speaking. But against Ivanisevic in the semi-final, Pete's tongue was back, just briefly I thought he might choke. A couple of years ago, Pete's tongue flopped around on his chin as a matter of course, like a thirsty St Bernard's. INTERESTING developments in Wimbledon's second week. Agassi's shorts appeared to be getting longer as the tournament went on.

If he'd made it through to the final, they would have been down around his ankles, so to speak And Pete Sampras's tongue re-appeared, under pressure. In every physical respect he's miles ahead of the opposition." Miles? A sore point as British middle- distance running labours and Morceli's encouragement extends only to saying: "You may catch up again in 10 or 15 years.". Dr Malcolm Brown, who looks after the British team, said Morceli may well hold all the records he wants by the year 2000 "He's an almost perfect model of mechanical efficiency. That sometimes made me unpopular." But it also hardened him and, though for a short time he returned to Algeria, he realised that the only way to promote his career was to base himself in the United States and then take on the European circuit, which he has achieved with distinction.Physically (1.72m, 62kg), he could hardly be more suited to the middle distances. "The biggest problem was that I spoke Algerian and French and only a little English." The college system meant that everything was based on the team rather than the individual and, as he said: "I had to refuse to run some races.