Title favourites Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport believe a mean streak is essential if they are to capture the Wimbledon title.
Defending champion Sharapova left nobody in any doubt about her ruthless approach to her ambitions when she moved into the third round with a 6-0, 6-1 defeat of 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva.
The young Bulgarian had bragged how she would 'kick the butt off' the Russian in a tournament in Indian Wells last year - Sharapova won that match and both clashes since.
"We're in different locker rooms, because I'm in the members' locker room. Sorry. I'm not trying to brag, that's just a fact," said the queen of centre court dismissively when asked if she had chatted to Karatantcheva after the tie.
"It's hard to be friends with someone who might be your opponent in the next round. Obviously, nothing against any of my opponents. But it's difficult to be really, really good friends off the court and then going on the court and trying to beat them."
Davenport, the champion in 1999, said that ambition drives her on and that losing to a player for whom she has no respect is hard to swallow.
"You certainly don't like to lose to the players that you're not big fans of," said the American.
{{/usCountry}}"You certainly don't like to lose to the players that you're not big fans of," said the American.
{{/usCountry}}"I've got to tell you, there's not a whole lot of close love between a lot of the top players.
"Not many players besides Venus and Serena at the top are super close that it's going to affect anybody.
"If I had to go play singles against Corina (Morariu, her longtime doubles partner) it would be awful. But that's one player that it would really affect. It affects Venus and Serena.
"Other than that, maybe one or two of the Russians are close."
Sharapova has said she is close to fellow 18-year-old compatriot Maria Kirilenko although there are still huge question marks over her relationship with other Russian girls on tour.
Only last year, Anastasia Myskina insisted she would not play in the same Russian Fed Cup team as the world number two because of her dislike for Sharapova's father Yuri Sharapova.