Looking the part is natural but only Blake can play it

Model Players: Kournikova's on-court appearance is all too fleeting but her male counterpart shows he is a winner in both senses

Two of the game's model players lived up to expectation here yesterday. James Blake, the spectacularly cheekboned 22-year-old, was gracious in victory; and Anna Kournikova, the perfectly proportioned 21-year-old with, was dazzling in defeat.

Last season's New Balls Please campaign, designed to showcase (that means picture in skimpy shorts and underpants) up and coming talent such as Jan-Michael Gambill and Lleyton Hewitt, betrayed an insecurity on the part of the ATP Men's Tour.

Blake's supplementary earnings on the catwalk do not begin to rival the millions made by Russia's most-famous-least-successful athlete. But they have been real enough as the former Harvard student, recently installed in the US Davis Cup team, has established himself as a character capable of setting hearts fluttering in SW19 and beyond for many years to come. Do not worry, ATP.

At first glance, Blake appears startled. But it is only his hair, braided and girded by a broad blue headband. For all that he looks like Sideshow Bob, however, he has none of the malevolence of that particular Simpsons character, exuding instead an almost tangible sense of dignified restraint.

He can also, for someone who is 6ft 1in and has incipient curvature of the spine, move smartly around the court, something which proved altogether too much yesterday for his first-round opponent, Mariano Zabaleta. As the Argentinian clay court specialist struggled to put his grass-court game together ­ that means he missed a lot of shots and began sliding around ­ he was unable even to gain the sympathy of the crowd which had gathered informally around Court Four because Blake was so damn polite.

Down goes Zabeleta, wrongfooted by a pass. Blake moves to the net with a look of concern.

Now the Argentinian finds a winning forehand pass, but before the applause can rise to its height the American counters him with an ultra-gracious "Shot".

Zabeleta was not just being outplayed, he was being comprehensively out-niced, and it wasn't pleasant to watch. By the closing stages of the second set he was looking sick. As it turned out, he was also feeling sick, which was the reason given for scratching at 6-2, 6-2, although from where I was standing it looked like a bad case of ruptured credibility.

Blake, whose reward for victory in what was his first Wimbledon singles match since turning professional in 1999 was a second-round meeting with the Netherlands' 1996 Wimbledon champion, Richard Krajicek, spoke with charm and eloquence afterwards about the hallowed traditions of Wimbledon. He recalled getting up to watch Wimbledon highlights on TV as a youngster ­ "it's the one time of the year you don't mind getting up at 6.30 in the morning," he said.

Now he is here he is likely to become part of that hallowed tradition by proving that, as with his hero Arthur Ashe, it is possible to be both nice and successful. God, he could even have been English as well if the LTA had woken up earlier to the fact that his mother, Betty, was born in Banbury. Someone could have done with taking a leaf out of Jack Charlton's book.

Sadly for Kournikova, that nice/successful combination has proved impossible to achieve. As she left the court yesterday following her 1-6, 6-4, 4-6 defeat by her fellow Russian Tatiana Panova, it was the smaller, less glamorous model who was choking up with emotion, while the taller, more glamorous one was thumping her heartily over the shoulder and smiling broadly. It was almost as if losing did not hurt Kournikova, who demonstrated throughout her match the intensity of a five-year-old.

At times, as she reacted with delight to a thumping forehand that came off, that reaction was charming. But all too often her fitful efforts generated that mournful sound that Wimbledon crowds usually reserve for plucky Brits on the way out.

In a way, Kournikova, who is still struggling to pull her game together after missing the best part of last season with a stress fracture, is trapped in her sexygirl persona.

The lustiest cheer yesterday was the one which greeted the removal of her tracksuit. And as she struggled vainly against the dying of the light, saving three match points before succumbing, the only encouragements from the crowd were hoarse and male. Has any woman ever shouted out "Come on Anna?" Why not, I wonder? Tennis crowds are probably best to view Kournikova as a gorgeous mayfly which lives for only a day.

"I just went out there and I tried to enjoy myself and enjoy just being on the court," Kournikova explained artlessly. "That was my main goal." That being the case, perhaps she has after all mastered the art of being nice and successful. Certainly she provided a pleasing spectacle ­ that is, if you don't mind seeing talent go to waste.

CAREER RECORDS

JAMES BLAKE

Age: 22
Country: United States
World ranking: 34
Career prize-money: $661,874.
Off-court earnings: in five figures
Career matches won: 32
Career matches lost: 31

ANNA KOURNIKOVA

Age: 21
Country: Russia
World ranking: 54
Career prize-money: $3,267,766.
Off-court earnings: $15m per year
Career matches won: 171
Career matches lost: 112