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    Now that the last ace has skimmed through the green lawns of Wimbledon and the men and women head to the hard courts of North America to prepare for the US Open, questions persist about the game's number one performers. Did Pete Sampras's Wimbledon triumph signal the end of his slump, or was it just a blip in his decline? Has the field caught up to Martina Hingis, or is she just, well, distracted? Here are some items to keep in mind as the world number ones embark on what could be a pivotal summer in their careers.
 
 

Pistol Pete with points to prove

    The fifth Wimbledon title in the career of Pete Sampras proved what a difference a change in venue and surface can make. For the first six months of the season Sampras was listless and error-prone, at one point losing his number-one status to Marcelo Ríos and now holding onto it by the slenderest of threads (in fact, Sampras was in danger of losing the crown to Ríos the week after Wimbledon).

    Just two weeks before Wimbledon, Pete had been bounced unceremoniously from the Queen's Club tune-up event by Mark Woodforde. At Wimbledon, however, a forgiving draw helped Sampras work his way gradually into the tournament with confidence-building wins, and he obviously felt renewed on the courts that had been the scene of four of his titles. He dispatched two dangerous grass-court opponents when he took out a rededicated Mark Philippoussis in the round of sixteen and local hero Tim Henman in the semis, before surviving some nervous moments to edge Goran Ivanisevic in a five-set final. Suddenly -- the media's collective memory is as short as a men's grass-court point -- the pundits who had been crying "Pete, que pasa?" are now offering glowing tributes to "perhaps the greatest player of all time".

    The truth about Pete, of course, is somewhere in between. Yes, it was a milestone victory and a sign that perhaps Sampras has ceased wandering in the wilderness. But skeptics about Pete's current form still have ammunition. His first serve percentage at Wimbledon invariably hovered around the unimpressive 50 percent mark, and his second serve will be less difficult to return on hard than it was on grass. At Wimby Pete did not have to face a seed higher than 12, nor a player with an ATP ranking better than 18. The US Open will be a different story, in all likelihood. Sampras will be unable to rely as extensively on the one-strike tennis that served him so well at Wimbledon and will have to work harder for his points, something he has found difficult against top opposition so far this year. And tougher opponents will likely await.

    If it takes a challenge to motivate Pete Sampras, he should have one at the US Open in the person of Marcelo Ríos, number two at this writing. "El Chino" has been by far the most impressive hard court player on tour this year, reaching the Australian finals and winning the hard-court Super Nines at Indian Wells and the Lipton. Ríos will be looking to redeem himself after a bitterly disappointing quarterfinal loss to Carlos Moyà at the French Open. Did this Parisian misadventure shake the young man's confidence? Since then he has been disappointing, going through the motions on grass (two first-round losses and a couple of pouty press conferences) and losing to the eminent part-timer, Boris Becker, on clay at Gstaad.

    Be that as it may, the Chilean's announced schedule indicates that he is playing virtually every week between now and the US Open. It appears Ríos has the number one spot in mind, and is bidding for maximum points this summer in order to keep pace with, or catch, Sampras... even at the cost of wearying himself for the US Open. Beware of the dangers of overplaying! Remember Ríos's elbow injury this spring? It appeared to be the result of an accumulation of matches. One always wonders about the wisdom of a loaded schedule, and especially so now in Ríos's case.

    Several other players will bear watching in the buildup to the US Open. Among them:
 

 

Defending US Open champion Patrick Rafter, woeful for much of this season, had an encouraging quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon, perhaps giving the Aussie something upon which to build this summer. Petr Korda, who stunned Sampras at the 1997 US Open, has failed to win a tournament since his 1998 Australian Open title. Like Rafter, Korda had an encouraging quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon, where an unfortunate heel injury hindered his chances to go further. French Open champion Carlos Moyà, so impressive in Paris, has shown he has the game to excel on faster courts as well. 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski will attempt to ready his injured ankle for Flushing Meadow, where he has many points to defend. He has had some good results this year on hard, notably a final at Indian Wells (where he lost in four sets to Ríos). Non-Sampras Wimbledon semifinalists Ivanisevic, Henman and Krajicek will hope to ride their good run of form into New York. Veterans Ivanisevic and Krajicek have never looked particularly comfortable at the US Open, and it is difficult to get too enthused about their chances. Henman is a more intriguing case: young and improving, but also wildly erratic. He did reach the semifinals at the Lipton on hard courts this year. There he lost to Ríos, but was one of the few players to take a set from the Chilean during his run of success last spring. Did I hear someone say Agassi? Hmmm, must have been my imagination....

US Open champion Pat Rafter

 

Hungry contenders surround Martina

    We also have an increasingly embattled number one on the female side this summer. With all due respect to Iva Majoli, it seemed that last year only a bucking horse was able to throw Martina Hingis off-course in her bid for all four major titles. Now, curiously more heavy-legged and less confident and aggressive than during her glorious 1997 campaign, Hingis was unable to reach the finals of either Roland-Garros or Wimbledon. In the past two major tournaments she has been undone by both the unbridled power of Monica Seles and the tactical guile of Jana Novotna.

    Is Martina feeling the pressure of being number one and defending major titles? Have improving and increasingly confident foes gotten clued into her game? Is she distracted by real-life teenage romantic drama? Did she just decide to lose a few big matches graciously to get the critics of her "attitude" off her back? Probably a combination of all of the above, with the exception the last humorously-intended point.

    Still, Hingis has a relatively comfortable (albeit shrinking) lead at the top of the standings. If she wants to make a statement that she will hold onto the top spot for a while longer, the long North American summer is as good a time as any to do so. Failing to make such a statement could put her top rank in peril.

2nd-ranked elder stateswoman Jana Novotna

    Among those who may have something to say about Martina's presence at the top this summer are:

• Old-timers (Novotna, Seles, Sánchez Vicario, Graf, Tauziat). OnTheLine's Chris Gerby made this comment in his excellent review of the French Open's women's final between Sánchez and Seles: "A pair of the tour's grizzled veterans  -- at the ripe old ages of 24 and 26 -- had designs on turning back the youth brigade and returning to the final themselves." If Monica and Arantxa did seem grizzled by tour standards, what are we to make of the Wimbledon finalists, 29-year-old geriatric Jana Novotna and 30-year-old geezer Nathalie Tauziat? Aside from these four who have apparently discovered the fountain of youth, we must add one more name to the list of veteran contenders: an ancient champion named Graf (28) who has optimistically entered the US Open. Novotna (winner of three straight tournaments including Wimbledon) and Seles (always tougher on hard courts than on grass) are the old gals who will probably bear the most watching.
  
  
• Teens (Venus and Serena Williams, Kournikova, Lucic, Schnyder). Ah, but this is the New World, where youth will be served. Anna Kournikova, Venus Williams and Mirjana Lucic all had their maiden fourth-round Grand Slam appearances at the US Open in the last few years, and the 1997 US Open final featured an all-teen duel between Martina and Venus. However, for the kids to challenge they will have to reverse the trend of the last two majors. There they seemed rather unlike potential champions, tending instead to bawl, collapse or quit during big matches. But hey, a new life, a new chance... that's what the New World is all about! The focus will be on the Williams girls and Kournikova, but Patty Schnyder has quietly won four tournaments this year. And Mirjana Lucic, whose off-form 1998 play has made us wonder what on earth everyone saw in her last year, could recover her conditioning and game as quickly as she lost them.
  
  
• In-between (Lindsay Davenport). In her early twenties, so much is always expected of Lindsay, who in a way bridges the generation gap on the tour. But she has yet to deliver a major final, let alone a major title. This despite being in the weaker half of the draw in all three Slams so far in 1998. It is generally felt that her best chance to snare a major title is on her native US soil. One senses her time is running short: she has been dislodged from the #2 spot in the rankings by Novotna, and more slippage may come at the hands of the above-named youngsters -- or old-timers! -- unless Davenport starts delivering major wins.

 

A long, hot, and exciting summer of both men's and women's tennis awaits, and the top-ranked players, one expects, will be doing a lot of the perspiring.