LONDON, July 6 (Reuters): One of the finest Wimbledon championships for years, saw the abdication of the old guard of women’s tennis but reports of the 'death' of the game's king, Pete Sampras, proved to be wildly exaggerated.

Sampras' 6-3. 6-4. 7-5 defeat of Andre Agassi in Sunday's final was stunning in its style and execution.

The 27-year-old American has been beaten just once on Wimbledon's grass in the past seven years and he seems a new man since taking six months off to put his life back in order.

Sampras is now talking of i playing until his early to mid-30s and by then he should have left Roy Emerson’s record of 12 Grand Slam titles, equalled on Sunday, far behind.

Agassi is world number one as of Monday but everyone, including tile shaven-headed Las Vegan, knows who is the best — today, in the 1990s and maybe since Rod Laver 30 years ago.

Sampras' wan was a fitting culmination w two weeks of tennis that showed the men’s game, often portrayed as second est to the charismatic women, can still thrill with the likes of Agassi. Gustavo Kuerten and Pat Rafter.

If Agassi can maintain the 'roll' that took him to the French Open title and on to the All-England final, then he will be a major threat to Sampras and double-champion Rafter at the US Open starting next month.

Rafter came up against Agassi at his best in the semifinals at. Wimbledon but he has developed into the best serve-volleyer in the men's game and has lost his fear of grass.

Steffi Grafs decision to slip into semi-retirement after losing the women's final 6-4, 7-5 to I Lindsay Davenport brought the curtain down on one of the great

grasscourt careers, and on a generation of players.

In their place come a mob of teenagers, led by Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters. Mirjana Lucic and new arrivals Jelena Dokic of Australia and American Alexandra Stevenson.

Graf. 30, won the French Open last month but two hard weeks at Wimbledon — including one of the matches of the tournament against Venus Williams in the quarterfinals — left her mentally and physically exhausted.

It is likely she will retire for good in tile next few months, choosing her time when the media cannot swamp her. and it is all but certain Monica Seles, Jana Novotna. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Graf will not add to their haul of Grand Slam titles — 35 between the four of them.

Seles looked a forlorn figure after she lost in the third round to 17-year-old Lucic. Seles is only 25 but the death of her father and the lingering effects of her courtside stabbing in 1993 have doused her fire.

Novotna is 30 like Graf and she wall almost certainly have to be Content with her one major title. Wimbledon in 1998. Sanchez Vicario, 27. is a woman whose game was based on an unquenchable spirit and an ability to run for ever.

But the manner of the Spaniard's semifinal defeat in Paris by Hingis and in the second round at Wimbledon by Lisa Raymond showed her batteries have finally begun to run down.

Hingis' hiccup at Wimbledon, where she was beaten in the first round by Dokic. was the sensation of the tournament and spawned untold column inches about the pressures at the ton, mother-daughter re-lationsnips and 'w'uther Mar-

tina’?

The Swiss 18-year-old will be back, as tough as ever to beat, and she still looks the most complete plaver on the women’s circuit. At 13. Graf had just become a major force — Hingis already has five Grand Slam victories to her name.

it is surely only a matter of months — perhaps on the hard courts at Flushing Meadow — before the power and athleticism of Venus Williams earns . its Grand Slam reward.

The 19-year-old in full flow was one of the great sights of Wimbledon fortnight. For someone often portrayed as cocky to the point of arrogance, she behaved impeccably and smiled her way past any question she didn't fancy.

Dokic and Stevenson were the discoveries of the tournament, the ever-grinning American becoming the first qualifier to reach the Wimbledon semifinals since John McEnroe in 1977.

McEnroe went eh to win three singles titles and Stevenson has tne baseline power to be a real force over the next decade.

Dokic. 16. has the same power but she also has a mental approach among the most single-minded in the game and a killer drop-shot. A qualifier this year, she could he seeded In the first chainpionships of the new’ millennium.

But for now Davenport, neither among the old guard or the new. is the immediate future of women’s tennis after not losing a set on the way to her first. Wimbledon, triumph. ■

'The 23-ycariold has been a different woman since winding the US Open last year, relaxed and confident in her own ability. and the depth and power of her baseline ground strokes throughout two weeki of Win bteu.-n aSj -Tusiai