Sampras, looking for an eighth Wimbledon title and his first tournament victory in two years, copped a huge break when fifth seeded Tommy Haas withdrew from the tournament to remain with his ailing parents in Florida, who were injured in a motorcycle accident.

Had Haas not withdrawn, Sampras would have been seeded seventh, and been seeded to play world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals. Instead, as the sixth seed, Sampras appears to have an easy path to the quarterfinals, where he is seeded to meet second seed Marat Safin, who is far less accomplished on grass than Hewitt.

Sampras plays Great Britain's Martin Lee in the first round and would face only clay-court specialists (or British wild card James Auckland) before the fourth round, where he would most likely play either Jan-Michael Gambill, Max Mirnyi or 12th seed Jiri Novak.