The blue-shirted ones usually know where to find the cutest girls and in the case of this 15-year-old from Chattanooga, their instincts were spot on.

They took their seats in the front row of Court Four where a third-round match in the girls' singles drew an impressive cast list.

Paul Annacone, coach to Pete Sampras and a man who helps represent Harkleroad on behalf of Artists Management Group, sat bare-torsoed in one corner.

Diagonally opposite him stood Tim Phillips, chairman of the All England Club at Wimbledon, in regulation suit and tie despite the steaming heat.

Phillips had come to watch Harkleroad's British opponent Jane O'Donoghue, but it was impossible not to be drawn by the quality and bearing of the opposition.

It was inconceivable, too, not to draw a parallel with Anna Kournikova, the blonde hair, the bronzed skin, the double-handed backhand (Harkleroad gets more first serves in), the slight strut in the walk.

With her looks - the pink zinc cream delicately spread across her cheekbones was a nice touch - and her game, I wondered if young Ashley suspected that there were bound to be comparisons with the player over whose towel grown men fight in the stands?

"It's okay with me," Harkleroad said, with a smile to melt teenage hearts.

"In the US they have started to compare me with her. At the moment I'm pretty well known in Chattanooga but nowhere else. All I want to have is a successful tennis career and that's what I'm trying to achieve."

That meant leaving the family home in Tennessee for the famed Saddlebrook Academy in Florida where, would you believe the irony, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis have practised with her.

"I have hit with both of them, but usually I have to play practice matches against boys because there aren't many girls of my standard there," she said.

"I have talked to Jennifer a couple of times here, only briefly, but she has wished me good luck. I really respect what she has done to come back. My dream is to play in a grand slam final one day."

Hopefully, young Ashley's route to glory will be slightly more stable than Capriati's.

She took up tennis at the age of four, was winning junior titles at 12, is already ranked 12 in the ITF juniors and is hankering after the top spot before the year is out.

Her program at Saddlebrook is intense - "I go to school for an hour at 7.30, start hitting at 9.15 and go through until 11. It's back to school for half an hour, then back on the court until one, then I do weights for an hour. On Sunday I don't play tennis."

It was exhausting just listening to her go through the regime. But Harkleroad is in the big wide world now.

She arrived in Australia jet-lagged and a touch forlorn, losing badly in the pre-Open tournament and calling her coach Jimmy Brown in Florida for a pep-talk.

Annacone, who has been in Sampras's corner for five years, is helping to chart her course.

"She has to learn that one result doesn't make her a great player and one defeat doesn't mean she will be serving burgers in McDonald's," Annacone said.

"She hits the ball well but there's a lot more tactical appreciation for her to understand."

Today Harkleroad plays the fifth seed Claudine Schaul in aquarter-final.

Want to know on what court? Follow the ball boys.