LONDON -- Two days are gone already at the All-England Club -- enough time for approximately 78,405 poor, unsuspecting, unprepared Brit spectators to have passed out in the shimmering heat and surely enough to inspect how the "new and improved" Wimbledon is working out.

1. Seeding

After all the clay-court wizards from places like Spain and Argentina bitched loudly enough that their year-long accomplishments and rankings weren't being respected enough by the committee suits, Wimbledon broke down. It expanded the seeds from 16 to 32 and threw most of the bones to -- wouldn't you know it? -- Spaniards and Argentines.

Seven of the extra seeds had compiled a 9-22 total record at The Big W. Argentines Gaston Gaudio (No. 32) and Guillermo Coria (29) had, respectively, never won here and never played here. Then the tournament started and two Alberts, Martin (31) and Portas (25), both Barcelona homeboys, lost on Monday. After the first round was completed on Tuesday, Coria had joined Gaudio in the winless-at-Wimbledon club. As for another seeded Argentine, Franco Squillari (seeded 28, 1-3 career previously at Wimbledon), The Squirrel was dispatched in straight sets by the young Swedish star of the ATP's "New Balls Please" ad campaign, Andreas Vinciguerra. That meant seven of the extras, the newly respecteds, were already gone.

New seeds, please.

2. Starting times

For those of you attending in person, matches on Centre Court and Court One have been starting at 1 p.m. rather than the traditional hour later -- except for the two singles championship matches on the final weekend, which retain their 2 p.m. serve-off. From here on, this means the British public can continue to free up their mornings so that they can arrive just in time to spend most of the rest of the day and night sitting in the long-overdue rainshowers.

3. In case of which ...

Improvements have been made to arrangements if spectators are blown out by the rain. A full refund of a ticket's face value will be made if less than an hour's play is possible, and half the value if play lasts between an hour and two hours. Ground capacity has increased, up by 1,000 to 34,500. Umbrellas are still optional.

4. To be ivy. Or not to be ivy.

The Boston ivy on the wall of the main clubhouse, familiar from those long, lingering shots on television, has been removed as part of the refurbishment of the Centre Court building and will be re-planted next year. Meanwhile, the lower parts of the south façade are dressed with temporary planting and the upper sections have been painted dark green so that, at first glance, people might not notice anything missing.

So never mind.

5. Digital TV

High-tech viewers at home are now able to choose to watch up to five matches in five different squares rather than rely exclusively on the shot-selection of the BBC. At 5:30 p.m. yesterday, for example, this meant that discriminating fans could witness the following fascinating confrontations:

Edwin Kempes vs. Younes Al Aynaoui. Andre Sa vs. Arvind Parmar. Slava Dosedel vs. Jiri Vacek. Eleni Daniilidou vs. Lubomira Bacheva. Lorna Woodroffe vs. Iroda Tulyaganova.

AT THE SAME TIME!

Moreover, television coverage now has the benefit of "Railcam" -- a camera mounted on tracks behind the baseline tracing a new view of those 140-mph serves. Unfortunately, the first few uses of "Railcam" ran about as smoothly as the English railroad: bumps and grinds all over. Fortunately, a new "Wirecam" -- a camera mounted on a line running above the grounds from the top of St. Mary's Walk to the south end of the Club, offering bird's-eye views of the proceedings -- never got off the ground. The zoning boys in Wimbledon village took one look at "Wirecam", laughed straight into their Pimms Cups and banned it forthwith.

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Tonsorial tips

It's a toss-up as to who has the worst new haircut, young Aussie heartthrob Lleyton Hewitt or old Aussie heartthrob Pat Rafter. Hewitt has shaved nearly his entire mane into a neo-skinhead style -- to the point that he probably should be nicknamed "Buzz" or saluted while clicking one's heels. As for the formerly Samurai top-knotted Rafter, he's clipped everything down to a nubby George Michael look, which he had encased in a weird, 60's-vintage headband on Tuesday that even he acknowledged made him "look like an idiot." Though last year's losing finalist has not been caught in any compromising positions lately (as far as anybody knows), Rafter's new short cut exposes a huge birthmark on the top of his head. With his face creamed up with zinc oxide, Rafter looked like nothing more than one of those bizarre, ghostly tribesmen rafting around Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

Pat, Mate: grow it back! Or kill Martin Sheen! Something!

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Dis of the day

TNT's Martina Navratilova on Alexandra Stevenson (a first-round winner Tuesday) making the '99 Wimbledon semis: "She got lucky. She played a few good matches, but Lisa Raymond had match points against her in the second round and should have won that match. Then we would have never heard of her [Stevenson]."

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Image is not everything; rude is even better

After Andre Agassi straight-setted Peter Wessels, the huge-serving Dutchman, in his opener, Lucie Morris of London's Daily Mail, engaged in this exchange:

Morris: The BBC showed Steffi [Graf] watching you today. They pointed out she's wearing a gold band on her wedding finger. Any plans to marry?

Agassi: Why don't you think of a question that is your business?

Morris: Your fans will be keen to know.

Agassi: I'm sure. I'll wait till they ask me.

Hey, Mr. Wonderful. Don't hold your breath.

Curry Kirkpatrick is covering Wimbledon for ESPN The Magazine, E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espnmag.com.