The Hopman Cup, which revealed Jelena Dokic to the world in 1999, may have unearthed two new stars in the making: Paradorn Srichaphan and James Blake.

Srichaphan, a 19 year old with a big serve, flowing ground strokes and a willingness to go to net, did only go 2-3 at the Hopman Cup, and it was the resurgent Tamarine Tanasugarn (who should be back on the tour full-time this year after completing her law degree) who spearheaded the surprise appearance of Thailand in the final. But Paradorn's losses were honorable, and one of his wins came against the Slovakian ace Karol Kucera. The young Thai, whose older brothers were also pro players and represented Thailand in Davis Cup, is poised to enter the top 100 very soon, and his play drew compliments from the likes of Mark Philippoussis.

20-year-old James Blake, an American athlete who starred last year for Harvard University and is taking a break from his studies to try the tour this year, also impressed, managing to notch a win over veteran Wayne Ferreira of the eventual champions from South Africa. Like Srichaphan, Blake is from a tennis family, with his brother Thomas also a tour professional. And he also impressed his fellow competitors, drawing this plaudit from Jonas Bjorkman: "He's going to be a good player for sure,'' Bjorkman told Australian newspaper The Age. "He's got good strokes and he's a good athlete, and he seems like he's quite cool on the court as well. The more matches he gets, the better he will be."

Magnus Norman may have won the Auckland tournament last week, and losing finalist Michael Chang may have been a major crowd draw, but it was obscure Spanish pro Juan Balcells who had the Kiwis buzzing all week. Balcells, a 24-year-old from Barcelona, must have had many people wondering about the legitimacy of his Spanish citizenship. He was the darling of the tennis fans all week, playing to the crowd, rushing to the net at every opportunity, and making spectacular, acrobatic volleys. Amazing stuff from a journeyman from the Challenger circuit who had only played seven matches on the main tour before this week.

Balcells also had pretty good results in Auckland, upsetting Squillari, Haas and Ferrero before losing valiantly in a three-set semifinal to Chang. After the match, an impressed Chang likened Balcells to the former French great Yannick Noah. "He played some unbelievable shots. He hit volley winners from behind his head. You don't see too many players with that kind of style and charisma and talent to go with it. He can play with the crowd making them smile and laugh."

Balcells will not be at the Australian Open, as he missed the qualifying rounds because of his New Zealand success. But if the Balcells Show comes to a town near you, don't miss it!

On the eve of the Australian Open, tennis fans are excitedly anticipating some great matchups. On the women's side Davenport and Hingis appear to be the co-favourites, but both of these top two seeds lost last week in Sydney to the last year's Melbourne runner-up, Amélie Mauresmo. Mauresmo had difficulty following up on her strong 1999 start last year, but she appears in devastating form again and is determined to at least equal her 1999 Australian showing.

Many eyes will also be on Belgian teen Kim Clijsters, On The Line's pick for 1999 Newcomer of the Year. Clijsters was impressive in her tournament win in Tasmania, dispensing of three seeded players en route to the title. Kim, like 9th-seeded Mauresmo and dangerous floater Jennifer Capriati, find themselves in Mary Pierce's quarter of the draw for the Australian Open, and this is probably as good a place as any in which to be. It would not be at all surprising to see one of these three in the semifinals, at the very least, at Melbourne.

On the men's side, Lleyton Hewitt will be interesting to follow after back-to-back tournament wins allowed him to take the number one spot in the ATP's infamous "Champions Race" standings. Remember that the hot hand in the first two weeks of 1999 was Thomas Enqvist, and he continued his roll at the Australian Open as an unseeded player to reach the final last year. Might we see a replay this year with the fiery Hewitt?

The optimistic prediction we made in our last column, that Boris Becker's resignation from the position of Davis Cup manager would put an end to Nicolas Kiefer's boycott of Davis Cup, proved to be hasty. Last week Kiefer announced that he would not play Davis Cup last year because it would make his schedule too busy.

The German Tennis Federation (DTB) responded by saying, in effect, well Nicolas, if you don't want to play Davis Cup we might not let you play in the Olympics either! "Kiwi", who is looking forward to the Olympics as one of his main goals for 2000, was not amused. The German National Olympic committee has offered to mediate between Kiefer and the DTB. Stay tuned....