On the women's side, there is one big event left to go in Montreal, but things are already starting to take shape. The Williams sisters are presently looking to be the women to beat, as Venus has followed up her Wimbledon triumph with two impressive wins in California (including a win over defending U.S. Open champ Lindsay Davenport), and Serena followed suit with a win over Martina Hingis and a berth in the Los Angeles finals.

Hingis and Davenport will attempt to have the last word in Montreal, where Venus will be present. But at this point it seems safe to assume that a Williams sister will go into Flushing Meadow as the favourite. The sisters have succeeded in cutting down their errors and playing the big points well this year, thereby curing weaknesses that had dogged both of them in the past. Hingis continues to give the impression that she does not believe in her heart of hearts that she can beat the power players of the game, while Davenport lost a bit of her conditioning and a lot of her confidence in the aftermath of her post-Australian Open injury problems.

The second tier of U.S. Open threats are in disarray. Monica Seles and Mary Pierce, nursing injuries, will be in suspect form by the time Flushing Meadow rolls around. Veteran Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has appeared off-form since her post-Wimbledon wedding, while her compatriot Conchita Martinez may have difficulty duplicating her run to the French Open finals on the slick hard courts of New York.

Two floaters who could be very difficult to deal with on present form are veteran Amy Frazier and newcomer Elena Dementieva.

Frazier has had an astonishing summer, upsetting Hingis, Martinez and Anke Huber, and taking Venus Williams to a third set tie-break before losing a tense one. The flat-hitting baseliner likes the hard courts of her native U.S.A., and is showing promising signs of the form that carried her to #13 in the world in 1995, when she reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

Dementieva has just reached her second important American hard court final of the season, repeating her final four showing at Indian Wells with a similar performance in Los Angeles this week. She lost to the excellent Davenport both times. The tall blonde with the booming forehand came very close to upsetting Martinez at the U.S. Open in the third round last year, and she is a much better player now.

But with one more important tune-up to come in Canada next week, we could see some new contenders emerge in Montreal!

The men's tour is pretty muddled these days, as veteran stars Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Patrick Rafter are struggling with injury and/or form, and the contenders are very hard to sort out. These four veteran stars can usually be counted on to produce some solid results in the summer events, but none of them were able to reach the semifinals of the important Tennis Masters Series events in Toronto and Cincinnati.

Sampras can afford to go into Wimbledon, where his game suits the surface so well, without confidence-boosting results. But the same is not true at the U.S. Open, where he has not reached the final since his title in 1996. Agassi has not reached a tournament final since his win in Australia at the beginning of the year, and is complaining of back pain. Kafelnikov has also been in a slump since Australia, while Rafter's shoulder problems might not even allow him to play in the Big Apple.

So who are the contenders? In the mid-age category, Thomas Enqvist, an impressive Cincinnati finalist, has never done well in New York. Nor has his opponent in the Cincinnati final Tim Henman, despite his prodigious attacking talents. Will one of these two finally break the New York jinx? Magnus Norman has had a great season but has not played well since his loss in the French Open final. However, he has the game to worry the best should it start to click.

In the youngster category, Marat Safin, with a frighteningly powerful hard court game and a superb Toronto championship under his belt, could make his Grand Slam breakthrough at the Open. French open champion Gustavo Kuerten, still just 23, is improving each year on the hard courts and will look to better his quarterfinal showing at Flushing Meadow last year. 1998 U.S. Open finalist Mark Philippoussis should be a dangerous threat, but he has primarily been a danger to himself this summer with head-scrat ching losses to Sargis Sargsian in Montreal and Fernando Vicente in Cincinnati.

On the floater front, note that Frenchman Arnaud Clément is the only player to have reached two hard court semifinals this summer, surprisingly turning the feat in Los Angeles and Cincinnati. A recent coaching change ? the speedy Clément has recently hired Philippe Rosant as his tutor ? appears to have been beneficial. Also, veteran Wayne Ferreira has also improved his fortunes under the guidance of Mats Wilander, with a quarterfinal in Los Angeles and semifinal in Toronto.

The rest of the summer promises to be hot, with surely more surprises in store!