WIMBLEDON, England -- The grass is playing slow and easy due to an English spring full of showers. South Americans are still around everywhere -- well, three in the last eight of the men's draw. The U.S. is long gone and the U.K. is slipping fast. So why can't the X-Man be the X-factor? Indeed, why can't Xavier Malisse, the Belgian baseliner with the hot ponytail and the cool demeanor, win the whole shooting match?

	Xavier Malisse leaps into the quarterfinals after defeating Greg Rusedski.

If the manner in which the smooth, stylish 21-year-old handled the pressure and then finished off one of Wimbledon's famous Centre Court rain-delayed, darkness-suspended, held-overnight five-setters is any indication, Malisse may be the surprise finalist to emerge from that bottom half of the men's draw.

That's the one that witnessed American legends such as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and Russian pseudo-legends Marat Safin and Yegeny Kafelnikov drop like finger sandwiches at a British lawn party. Malisse took out Kafelnikov in the third round, after which the X-Man compounded his success by finishing off one of England's beloved homeboys, Greg Rusedski, on Tuesday.

All in all, it made Malisse the first Belgian quarterfinalist at Wimbledon since 1924, when Jean Washer lost to Frenchman Rene LeCoste. "Maybe I wasn't expecting to get to the quarters," X said. "But you know, I feel good on grass and every match is going better and better."

Though he has never won a tournament on the men's pro circuit -- a mystery that Agatha Christie should have had Belgium's own Hercule Poirot solve a long time ago -- Malisse's speed, deceptive forehand and flashy aggression were always a worry to Rusedski. Especially when the Cana-Brit failed to put the kid away in the gloaming Monday night even with the benefit of winning a point on a double hit.

That was a riposte of a forehand that Malisse actually hit between his legs with his back to the net after running down a lob. "The greatest point I've ever seen," John McEnroe said, commentating for the BBC.

The tennis hardly matched that level when they resumed on another cold, wet London afternoon to play the final set. But in the seventh game, the X-Man got the key service break when he put together a nifty little run that included a backhand winner, a touch lob to the base, a forehand pass and another rocket at a volleying Rusedski, which the loser dumped into the net.

"Flowy," was the word Rusedski used to describe Malisse's game. "He's a very crafty guy because he's got a long reach. He's quick. He makes shots out of nothing sometimes. He's not consistent, but he's so flashy. He's just very loose the whole time he plays."

Rusedski tried to hold two break points in the final game to get back on serve, but he couldn't keep Malisse from worming out of the crisis -- the ultimate compliment: "I would have chipped and charged, tried to put the pressure on him," Rusedski said. "But (Malisse) is not a character who gets tense. You can see that from his body language."

All that anybody used to see from the X-Man -- who had the reputation of being both lazy and crazy, who colored his hair weird hues, tanked matches and "had the worst attitude of any player I've ever seen," says one prominent former champion -- was a kind of tennis boy toy.

Malisse was precisely that for Jennifer Capriati for the major part of 2000 -- the two young lovers (well, Jen Jen was obviously robbing the cradle; her babe guy was five years her junior) so hot and heavy that neither could keep a ball in court, so consumed with each other that it caused Capriati's final breakup with the coach who saved her career, Harold Solomon.

"I was stupid over Jennifer," Malisse once told a Belgian journalist. "I think she used me. I didn't play the tournaments that I wanted to. I'd follow her anywhere she wanted me to go. We had houses near each other in Florida and all Jennifer had to do was call and I'd come running. I think I concentrated all my life's mistakes in one year of my life."

	“	David (Felgate) helped me so much technically and mentally. He calmed me down and taught me that losing a set wasn't the end of the world. I used to get upset on court and didn't like what was expected of me. He made the life of being a tennis player much more enjoyable. ”
		— Xavier Malisse, on his former coach

Given Malisse's killer looks and laid back style -- "Xavier is the coolest guy on the tour," agree countless peers of the man who is the spitting image of Johnny Depp's pirate heartthrob in the movie Chocolat, if the Deppster took a shower -- Capriati might have counted her blessings and kept the international model types off her boyfriend's tail.

But a lasting relationship was not to be. As soon as one or the other did the dumping -- He Said, She Said -- both players' tennis careers seemed to explode affirmatively. Malisse, in fact, is to marry a Belgian girl in September. "I'm not really going to comment on (Xavier)," Capriati said Tuesday. "It's something of the past. All I'm going to say is that it's nice to see him doing well."

The X-Man started doing well as a star junior ... soccer player. Playing out of the Belgian town of Kortrijk, just a few miles from the French border, he switched to tennis at 13 and in 1997 was ranked the tenth best junior in the world. But his massive talent did not translate into results. "Other players my age probably handled the burdens better than me," he says. "Everybody looked at me and said I had the potential to achieve so much but wasn't achieving anything."

People like Sampras, who came within two points of losing to Malisse at Philadelphia in 1998. "You are going to see a lot of this guy," said the Pistol back then of the 17-year-old. The next year, Malisse engaged Lleyton Hewitt at Delray Beach in one of the few all-teenage finals in the history of the ATP circuit.

(Don't be surprised if the two have a rematch in the championship round here on Sunday.)

Subsequent to those early highlights, though, Malisse spent most of his time trying to qualify out of the minor leagues. At Nick Bolletttieri's renowned academy in Bradenton, Fla., he was always considered a slacker. Then early last year, he hooked up with David Felgate, a respected British coach who had just been fired by Tim Henman. "Even before that, I told myself I've got to give myself a shot at this," Malisse said Tuesday. In 2001, the X-Man improved over 90 ranking positions to No. 31 and won precisely that many more matches than the season previous.

Undoubtedly fired up by Felgate, he's defeated Henman twice on big occasions -- at the U.S. Open last year where he reached the fourth round and at the French Open this year where he also made it to the round of 16. Malisse also took Roger Federer to five sets at last year's Wimbledon.

X-Man's excellent adventures in 2002 include two semifinal appearances at tournaments in the United States: Memphis (losing to Andy Roddick) and Scottsdale (losing to Agassi). Malisse is currently ranked No. 35. With Felgate switching careers and moving into an executive position at IMG, the player just a few weeks ago hired another esteemed coach, Craig Kardon, the guy who mentored Martina Navratilova to most of her Wimbledon championships.

"David (Felgate) helped me so much technically and mentally," Malisse said. "He calmed me down and taught me that losing a set wasn't the end of the world. I used to get upset on court and didn't like what was expected of me. He made the life of being a tennis player much more enjoyable."

And Kardon?

"It's going perfect. We're the same type of guy. He's very calm, too. We really get along off the court," Malisse said. "Laugh a lot, understand each other. Craig coached Martina, then Mary Pierce. I don't know, all women, I guess, so you know it's a little different. But I have a ponytail so it looks like a woman."

Which means that if on Sunday evening Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like A Lady starts blaring from the All England concourses, we will know that flash begot cash and the kid known as the X-Man, sure enough, won Wimbledon.

Curry Kirkpatrick is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espnmag.com.