This classic game of 2 or 4, 1 or 2 on each side of the net, remains forever interesting and steadily grows in popularity.  There's always something fascinating about 2 men, or even more interesting 2 women slugging it out from either side of the net, trying to steer the ball out of reach or un-returnable to the opponent's court without going out of bound.

Tennis players are ultimate warriors. A match can last up to 4 to 5 hours. In these hours, players have to know how to pace themselves to outlast their opponent. Hence, it's the ultimate test of will! Surely a young player in modern day can serve up to 140 some miles an hour, but can all of them physically outlast their opponent in these hours to win the match? Can they keep up with the pace of serving at high percentage and high power all match long? Can they keep coming up with great passing shots, winning volleys, overpowering backhand and forehand winners all match long?  And what more exciting is that to win a tournament, a player has to play and win all seven matches. Rarely do spectators see a player breeze through a tournament without playing a five set match. So these are the physical criteria that must be taught and trained for those young gun juniors that start out and hope to make it to the big tours: The ATP Tour for Men and the WTA Tour for women.

 While physical stamina is a must, Tennis is a game where psychological games are played and are one of the key components of success. The game within the game, so to speak! How often have we witnessed many a time where Johnny Mac Enroe smashed rackets, got in officials' face, or stared at his opponent before a point. How many times, have we seen players jog between points and change over to show their opponent that they're fresh and still are going as a bunny energizer. We recently see that in Andy Roddick, who has been doing well since last year in 2002. More apparently, it's evident in world number one, Layton Hewitt, whose relentlessness of chasing after the ball, tires and intimidates most of his opponents on tour. It's the intimidation factor and it works! The psychological games are not only played with the guy or the gal over the net, they're also played to the chair umpire and the line people. No matter how well these people do their jobs, they're always wrong and futile if calls don't go the player's way. Competitive as they are, the players aren't hesitant in making their opinions heard. They'd get in official's face, stare at line men and net judges regardless of the correctness of the call; if it's close, it should be in their favor.

However, tennis is not constricted to just winning tournaments and competitiveness. It attracts people of different interests, social ladders, and ethnicities. Thus, it knows no boundary, transcending race, religions, language barrier or sexual orientations. It's a language in itself. Speak any TENNIS? So a non-tennis speaker must ask," how does Tennis do all this?" The answer is actually quite simple; one just has to watch a Sampras's match, an Aggassi's match, a Michael Chang's match, a Patrick Rafter's match, a Serena Williams's match and Venus's match. These players are exemplary representatives of the game with contrasting styles, contrasting personalities on and of the court, and differing ethnicities. Their play exemplifies, personifies, and at times revolutionizes the game.

If one intends to see a Sampras's match, it's much better to buy a ticket and watch him live in actions. Many experts think that he was physically, mentally made for the game, and rightly so. Sampras's game is methodically powerful and, most of the time, seems invulnerable. He has a powerful serve that can go up in the mid 130s miles per hour, but that's not the only thing about the serve haunt his opponents over the net.

 His disguise of serve is incredible; there is no way for players to guess which direction he's going to go, and moreover, his seemingly impossible accurate placement of the serve is just dominating. That alone answers the question as to why players try to avoid Sampras in the draw over the years. It gets scarier with Sampras. His serve is only the start; experts often refer him as a complete package. He can stay on the base line and slug it out with just about the best of them. His running forehand was and still is the one of the best in the game, while his one-handed back hand is always in perfect form, ready to either go cross court or down the line as his opponents watch it go by in awe. While at net, Sampras is like the former elegance of Stephan Ebert of Sweden. His placement, zip, and depth in the volleys have been overpowering and dominating the tour since 1990 when he first took his very first Grand Slam, the US OPEN. And last but not least, his mental toughness and competitiveness are unrivaled. Any Tennis fan would remember how he was sick, so sick, yet managed to come up with the improbable Semifinal win in five with Alex Coreja of Spain. The match itself was an epic, which now has turned into an all-time classic. There were also the Semifinals of the Australian Open, where he was trying to overcome his best friend and coach's passing. He started the match with then World Number Two Jimmy Courier in tears, losing the first two sets, came back and won in five. There were of course many more memorial wins throughout his career.

Last year 2002 US Open, when he was written off by all sport writers and so-called experts, even criticized by his peers. Some even went so far as to say that he should retire to not jeopardizing losing his legacy. But since when do these writers and peers dictate what Sampras should do with his game and his life. He stoically went straight to the final, where he once again triumphed over his chief rival, Andre Agassi to win his historical record of 15 Grand Slams.

 If one likes Sampras's game, Agassi's is just as entertaining, if not more. While does not possess all of the weapons that Samprass does, Agassi's game is also overpowering and intimidating to his opponents. His level of confidence, physical fitness, and mental focus has been raised to peak in recent years, and they allow him to win tournaments. His recent win at the Australian Open totaled his Grand Slam wins to eight, one of the most wins of all times. Furthermore, Agassi is one of only three who have ever won on four different surfaces, a Grand Slam. So what is it about his game beside his metal ability and competitiveness, and physical fitness that allows him to win so many, so fast?

Agassi's game is totally in contrast with Sampras's. While Sampras dominates with his serves and all around game, Agassi dominates with his return of serve. In fact, they have become and been arch rivals because they're starting out as the same time as much as they possess two contrasting styles, and both have been proven to be successful. Agassi's return of serve is scary! In fact, players serve faster and faster in modern-day tennis, yet they all dread the notorious Agassi's return. His secret is coordination which combines: seeing the ball early, stay on the base line or inside rather than outside, and early preparation to receive. These things are of course easier said than done; lots of players, I am sure, have imitated and emulated Agassi's return, but none has become as nearly as dominant. How often do big servers on tour see their big serves come back faster from over the net than they have started! Martin Dam, an American big server, once saw his 147 miles per hour serve returned and eventually lost the point in the hand of Andre. Another advantageous point of his return is that, his return is always so good that it would force the opponents to crank their second serves up. And that always results in a lower second serve percentage, which means many more double faults. That translates into free points for Andre.

Agassi can't just dominate the game by just his return. His base-lining game is considered to be one of the best in the history of the game.  His accurate and overpowering ground strokes from both sides are just too much for his opponents. In addition, his ability of generating angles and shots are uncanny and one of the rarest the game has ever seen. In the recent years, Agassi has added another crucial component to his repertoire, one that makes him even more dominating and intimidating to his peers, his physical fitness. Once a match starts his opponents now know that Agassi is not going to go anywhere and is going to duke it out until it's over regardless of how many games or sets he's down by or how many sets or games he has to go in order to win.

Interestingly, not only Agassi's playing style is in contrast with Sampras's, they're also directly opposite in personalities. Sampras is always soft-spoken, calm and cool whereas Agassi likes to speak his mind, flamboyant and out going. Agassi's showmanship complements Sampras's taciturnity, and this makes the rivalry even more fascinating. Aggasi's showmanship and flamboyance earn him great popularity while Sampras's gentlemanly conduct registers him as a gracious, humble gentleman in public. Their contrasting styles, contrasting personalities, and successes make the rival the most interesting in the Open Era.

More than two decades of competing against one another, the rivalry of Peter Sampras and Andre Agassi is coming to an end. Sampras is after all getting to the retirement age, and Agassi, though physically fit, is already 31 year old. Perhaps, in a very near future, there will be a rematch, a last one in enormous proportion to consummate the end of an already legendary rivalry between two of greatest champions of all the times.

While old rivalries are still talked about, referred to, and reminisced by the press, new rivalries are becoming, blossoming and grabbing public attention in an unprecedented fashion. They still talk about Cornor vs. Mc Enroe, Mc Enroe vs. Lendle, Lendle vs. Cornor, Mc Enroe vs. Borg; on the women tour, Evert vs. Navratilova, Graf vs. Seles, and ect...These legendary rivalries still live on in present days, as new and unprecedented rivalries such as the Williams sisters vs. on another.  In no time in history of the game, where two sisters or two brothers were world number one and two and were competing against each other for majors all most all the time. Starting out in the mid 90s, the sisters were playing sparingly due to their tender age at the time, but were already demanding public attention by storm. They, shortly after, started dominating the tours by big serves, agility around the court, all around game, and poise on and off the court. Venus won most of the major tournaments in the late nineties, many times beating her sister in the finals as Serena has been dominating her sister in all recent contests. She won the last four Slams on tour in seemingly effortless fashion as the world watched in awe and amazement. At the age of twenty, she's already become one of a few in history to have won all four majors, and more impressively all four were won in a row.

As wonderful as this sister rivalry has been, it's still in a very early age. There will be many more memorial matches in historical proportions for the fans to enjoy, and there's no better way to popularize and promote this wonderful sport. 

            Al though, the Williams sisters have been dominating the tour of late, other veterans and up-and-coming youngsters are making their mark. Veterans of old such as Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati are still playing well and winning major tournaments. Davenport is a proven champion, and a prolific winner of important Slams. She’s still the prospect of winning a few more, while Jennifer Capriati overcame her misspent years to become one of the dominant forces in recent years on tour and lived up to her previous promise and expectation as an accomplished player. She’s pulled off as many improbable wins in majors as any all time great in women’s history.  Given the fact that the Williamses have been dominating of late, these three veterans will find ways to rediscover themselves to compete their ways into the finals.

            Younger yet well known players such as: Kim Clisjsters , Justine Henin, Myskina, Dementieva, Hantuchova are up and coming, proven to be tough match for even the Williamses. Al though being overshadowed by the Williamses, they are rising fast in popularity and are doing a great job backing it up with great play and toughness. In fact Serena Williams has been regularly challenged by Kim Clysters in finals; Kim has won a few of their contests in smaller tournaments, but never broke through on the big ones. In 2003 Australian Open, she once again lost to Serena in a disappointing final. However, there’s a hunch that she’ll be there again, so watch out!

            These youngsters though are sound in techniques for instance Henin’s backhand is the best in the game. They lack of size and power to deal with the Williamses. They need time to develop these accesses, and they do have time. Thus, the year of 2003 will be a very interesting year to observe the development of these players.

            Inspired by the success of Anna Kournikova, an influx of young Russian players exploded on tour with great success. While Anna’s success mainly depends on her physical appeals, these players are the real deal. They put the cosmetics aside and get down for points rather than to try winning the popularity contest.  Players such as: Dementieva, Hantuchova, Myskina joined in just recent years, but have steadily climbed up the ranking ladder. While Hantuchova secures herself in top the top tens in the last two years, the other two have been steady in top 20s. They display sound techniques, great agility around the court and court coverage. They’ll also be tough competitor for the Williams sisters in up coming years. 

            American Men Tennis has seen its greats time after time. There were Connors, Mc. Enroe from the seventies to late nineties, then came Chang, Courier, Sampras, Agassi from the late eighties to early two thousands. While the glory of these greats still presides, many wonder and are doubtful if the next generation is up and coming.  We’ve all seen Andy Rodicks, James Blake; these young players, though started out slower than their predecessors, are making the name for themselves and are succeeding in their own rights. They play with great enthusiasm, pride, and power. Rodicks and Blake do possess real games and weapons that are lethal enough to win the ‘big ones’.  Whether or not they are going to be the next American greats still remains to be seen as American fans and media attentively observe the development of this next generation.