WIMBLEDON, England -- Second seed Andre Agassi negotiated a safe passage to the second round of Wimbledon with a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 victory against Dutchman Peter Wessels on Centre Court on Tuesday.

	Australia's Lleyton Hewitt salutes the crowd after winning his first round match against Sweden's Magnus Gustafsson 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Yevgeny Kafelnikov advanced with straight-set victories. Last year's surprise semifinalist, Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, was eliminated.

Watched by girlfriend Steffi Graf, Agassi struggled to combat Wessels' efficiency on grass in the opening exchanges.

But after racing through the tiebreak 7-1, the 31-year-old American secured an early break in each of the last two sets to win against an opponent whose touch deserted him.

It was Agassi's 200th Grand Slam match and the victory took his win-loss record to 163-37, which equals Boris Becker's haul of 163 Grand Slam victories.

"I feel just as weary now as I did at 19," Agassi said.

Agassi raced through the first set tiebreak 7-1, a platform that formed the basis of his victory, but he had been on the defense for much of the first set.

"I got a bit lucky," he said afterward.

"He was serving big going into the tiebreaker, but then he missed every first serve in the 'breaker. It was a crucial time.

"But I was serving well at that stage and feeling good. I've hit a lot of balls recently, always building my confidence on the faster surface, and I felt my strokes were really clean.

On the slow clay of Roland Garros earlier this month, Agassi succumbed to Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in the quarterfinals.

"This is a tough time of the year. It's like you're in six weeks of playoffs because the French Open is so close to Wimbledon.

"With the extremes of surfaces, it requires you to bring out every aspect of your game. It can be tiring, but I'm experienced enough to handle it."

Suggestions that watching former United States president Bill Clinton acted as a jinx clearly annoyed Agassi, and he left Paris under a cloud.

He flew home immediately and the change seems to have worked.

"I needed a few days to kind of regroup from the loss in Paris. It did me good."

Agassi plays British world No. 182 Jamie Delgado in the second round.

Rafter, seeded third, beat Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-6 (7), 6-3. Last year, Rafter was runner-up to Pete Sampras despite being seeded 12th.

"Last year gave me that little bit extra confidence that I probably can do it now," the Aussie said.

Hewitt, an Australian seeded fifth, eliminated Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. Seventh-seeded Kafelnikov defeated Yong-Il Yoon of Korea 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Voltchkov lost 6-3, 6-7 (9), 7-6 (8), 7-5 to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

In early men's action, Ninth-seeded Frenchman Sebastian Grosjean, a semifinalist at the French Open earlier this month, comfortably saw off Michael Kratochvil of Switzerland 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

Tenth seed Thomas Enqvist also proved too strong for Czech Martin Damm, winning 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Briton Jamie Delgado, the world No. 182, upset Ukraine's Andrei Medvedev 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 to become the fifth home player through to the men's second round.

American 20-year-old Taylor Dent sounded a warning with an impressive 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Spanish clay-courter Sergi Bruguera, his first ever victory at Wimbledon. Dent will face Hewitt in the second round.