Last month at the French Open, there weren't a lot of early exits from the seeded players.

But just three days into Wimbledon, seven of the top 16 players -- including No. 3 seed Magnus Norman, a finalist at the French Open -- have been eliminated.

WALKING AWAY

Norman Third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden, runner-up at the French Open this month, on Wednesday was stunned by Belgian qualifier Olivier Rochus -- playing in his first tour-level event -- 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1. Krajicek Richard Krajicek, the only player to beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon the past seven years, has been eliminated. The 1996 Wimbledon champ was ousted by South African grass-court expert Wayne Ferreira 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (3). The 11th-seeded Dutchman had been considered one of the few players capable of challenging Sampras in his bid for a seventh title. Pioline Cedric Pioline, the 1997 runner-up, also was upset Wednesday -- by the 237th ranked player on the ATP Tour. Pioline, the No. 6 seed who is known to excel on grass, lost 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 3-6, 6-4 to qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus. Hewitt Seventh-seeded Lleyton Hewitt lost to American Jan-Michael Gambill in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5, on Tuesday in his first appearance on Centre Court. Hewitt beat Sampras in straight sets last week in the final of the Wimbledon warmup at Queen's Club, prompting Sampras to anoint the Australian a possible Wimbledon champion. Not this year. Instead, Gambill, a 23-year-old American, improved his all-time Grand Slam record to 8-11.

When seeded players start dropping out, the field opens up tremendously for the unseeded players and qualifiers, who now have a great opportunity in front of them. They need to see it as the chance to really advance deep into the tournament.

I was in a similar situation at Wimbledon in 1996. That year, Andre Agassi and Boris Becker, who were in my half of the draw, both suffered losses. With two seeds out, there was a good chance an unseeded player could break through. And that's what happened for me as I was able to advance to the final.

After upsets like these occur, seeds almost become irrelevant. There's a lot of money, a lot of points and worldwide coverage at stake. And at this point, players look at any Grand Slam as a great opportunity to showcase their game and what they're capable of on the tennis court.

And in a major, anyone can beat anyone on tour, and I think that's what we've seen early on at Wimbledon. Vladimir Voltchkov, a qualifier of Belarus who beat No. 6 seed Cedric Pioline, is a classic example. Voltchkov had nothing to lose. If anything, the pressure was on Pioline because he was the heavy favorite.

Still, it's shocking for Pioline to lose this early at the All England Club. He has had a solid year up until this point, and been to the Wimbledon finals before. So you'd expect him to come in and really perform at a tough level.

Wayne Ferreira's win over Richard Krajicek isn't as surprising, and is not a huge upset. Ferreira is an all-court player who has had success on all surfaces.

As for Hewitt, he simply didn't play the type of tennis he displayed last week when he beat Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic to win the Queen's Club tournament. The surface also worked against Hewitt, who is not a classic serve-and-volley player who is going to attack the net. Plus, against players like Sampras who come at you constantly, Hewitt is allowed to counter-punch, one of the things he does best. But Hewitt couldn't do it as often against Gambill, who tends to stay back more and force Hewitt to do more with the ball.

Norman also struggled in part because of the surface. He's a guy who prefers to play from the baseline, and it showed. Still, this loss was a big surprise.

The key now for Rochus and Voltchkov to avoid being content. You hope they can put these big wins behind them and move on and focus on the next match. Too often we see a guy come out of nowhere to knock off a seeded player only to lose in the next round.