Krajicek struggles to find the old rhythm on return

"Crackerjack" is back, perhaps not cranking the serve the way we remembered from 1996, but hardly missing a volley. Frankly, the quality of his play was less important to Richard Krajicek yesterday than being back on the Wimbledon grass, pain-free and winning.

The man who overwhelmed Pete Sampras en route to becoming the first Dutchman to win the men's singles title here six years ago advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 7-5, 7-6, against Franco Squillari, of Argentina, whose game is more comfortable on slow clay courts.

"I'm very happy," the 30-year-old Krajicek said. "Three or four weeks ago, my arm was still bothering me, and I didn't believe I was going to play Wimbledon this year and maybe was even doubting when I was going to play."

An elbow injury prevented Krajicek from playing singles for 18 months until last week, when he entered a tournament in Rosmalen. "There are a lot of holes in my game," he acknowledged, not allowing himself to be fooled by the fact that he hit 17 aces against Squillari. "My serve is not consistent," he said. "Sometimes I mis-hit it a little bit. I am still struggling with my rhythm."

The serve may be rusty, but Krajicek's volleys generally found their target. "They were pretty solid," he said. "The quality maybe wasn't always great, but it gave me a chance of a second shot. You have to improve gradually, of course. It's always good not to make too many mistakes, and from there you can work your way up with the quality."

After saying that the suspect elbow had not troubled him during the match, but that he expected it to stiffen later, Krajicek was asked why it was that certain players born in 1971, such as himself and Goran Ivanisevic, were troubled by injuries.

"Maybe it's like wine: you have good and bad years," he said, smiling. "Maybe we had a physically bad vintage '71." Seriously, though? "I think it's wear and tear. We're big servers. It's amazing that your shoulder, or elbow, whatever, holds together for so long."

Krajicek played on Court Three yesterday. "I don't think I've played there before," he said. "I've played on Court 2, 4, 5, a lot of courts. I forgot how small the outside courts are actually. Not that I always play on Centre Court." Aside from anything else, Court Three was streaker-free.

Marat Safin, seeded No 2 to play Lleyton Hewitt in the final, survived his first hurdle, a potentially dangerous opening match against Cedric Pioline, of France, the runner-up to Sampras in 1997. The 33-year-old Pioline threatened Safin in the first set, but the Russian took control after securing a tie-break, 9-7, and went on to win, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Mark Philippoussis, a candidate to emulate Ivanisevic with a wild card, overcame a nervous start to defeat Julien Boutter, of France, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. "I didn't have any timing on my serve until the start of the third set," the Australian, ranked No 104, said. "Besides that, I felt I played OK for the first match."