Champs

ATP French Tennis got a big boost in the arm at this year's Australian Open as Arnaud Clement and Sebastian Grosjean met in the semifinals of the first Slam of the year. In one of the best matches of the fortnight, the two friends battled for over four hours with the slightly elder Clement reaching the final (before losing fairly routinely to repeat-champ, Andre Agassi). Grosjean served for the match in the third set and reached two match points before Clement staged a stunning comeback. The flashy Frenchmen might not be the biggest (Clement - 5'8", Grosjean - 5'9") or strongest players on the Tour but both scored impressive victories at the Open. Grosjean knocked off a revived Carlos Moya and the fourth-seeded Magnus Norman, while Clement ousted "new balls" poster boy Roger Federer, Kuerten-killer Greg Rusedski, and the always enigmatic Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Both players are no strangers to success. Grosjean reached the finals of now Tennis Masters - Miami back in 1999 beating Kuerten and Moya (during his "blink or you'll miss it" reign as the #1 ranked player). Clement is most remembered for two matches versus Agassi. At the 1999 French Open, Clement was two points from defeating Agassi in the second round. This did not occur and the American went on to complete his career Grand Slam that year. However, the Frenchmen scored his highest profile Grand Slam victory to date in 2000 when he took out Agassi on his home-turf at Flushing Meadows in a straight set second round victory. With this year's Australian Open results, they have now fully graduated from "dangerous floaters" to contenders. Without a doubt, these two national tennis heroes will have the weight of their country upon them in May at Roland Garros.

WTA Belgian Tennis also does not appear to be in any trouble if the early part of the 2001 season is any indication. For such a small country, the tennis talent on the women's tour has never been lacking. While this year could have been a tough one with the retirement of Dominique Van Roost and Sabine Appelmans the Belgian torch as been flawlessly passed to Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Clijsters burst onto the scene in 1999 and quickly captured her first tournament title that year. Though still lacking a big win, the 17-year old is currently standing at a career high ranking of #15. Henin, one year older than Clijsters, was fast out of the gate as well becoming only the fifth player to win her debut tournament. Still eclipsed by her countrywoman (who these days gets more press for being Lleyton Hewitt's girlfriend than her on-court successes), Henin started to turn heads with her first high profile Slam victory over Anna Kournikova at last year's US Open. This would be topped this year as Henin won her first two tournaments this year (eerily and perhaps ironically similar to Clijsters's boyfriend's season debut in 2000) and compiled a 13-match winning streak which was ended by Monica Seles in the fourth round of the Australian Open. With both players currently in the top twenty, 2001 looks to be a good year.

As no doubt you have read, Boris Becker has been having a very difficult time of late. The six-time Grand Slam champ's personal life is clearly in shambles. Over the past months, Becker has been involved with a nasty divorce, a near paternity suit, and news of a sexy new girlfriend. Becker dubbed the end of his seven year marriage to German-American actress Barbara Feltus as the "biggest of all defeats." The final two years of their union appears to have been unhappy ones. After agreeing to a multi-million dollar settlement with Feltus, Becker may be dishing out more of his career earnings in the near future. This week, after a threat of a paternity suit, Becker acknowledged that he was the fathered a now nine-month year old girl with Angela Ermakova, a Russian model living in London. Becker has two sons with Feltus. If all of this was not enough, the ever-eager German press has uncovered the obviously testosterone-driven Becker's latest flame, a 27-year old German rap singer named Sabrina Setlur who was once voted the country's "most erotic woman." So it is safe to say that although he is gone from the game, we will be hearing a lot more about Boris Becker in the near future.