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Top 5 year end rankings for year 2000.....Men:1st-Gustavo Kuerten 2nd-Marat Safin 3rd-Pete Sampras 4th-Magnus Norman 5th-Yevgeny Kafelnikov.....Women:1st-Martina Hingis 2nd-Lindsay Davenport 3rd-Venus Williams 4th-Monica Seles 5th-Conchita Martinez

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Pete Sampras (USA)

Pete Sampras

Plays: Right-handed

Birthdate: 8/12/71

Born: Washington, D.C., USA

Turned Pro: 1988

Residence: Orlando, Florida, USA

Height: 6'1'' (185 cm)

Weight: 175 lbs (79 kg)

He has made Tennis his sole act of self-expression. In all else he is a man of undeclared and hopelessly inarticulate statements. Pete Sampras has channeled every unspoken feeling, unexpressed resentment, unwailed frustration, and internalized pain into his tennis game. By suppressing his emotions, he has been able to chase history.
Sampras' first appearance was as a head-scratching 19-year-old, a lanky, solitary son of Greek immigrants who became the youngest man to win The U.S. Open (but whose parents were too reticent and nervous to watch him in person). He had limbs like knotted ropes, a serve that could bust through a chain-link fence, and all the apparent personality of a two-by-four. He stared at the trophy with a puzzeled grin, as if to say, "Am I this good?"
As a young man, he would experience profound loss, as hand in hand with Grand Slam titles came the deaths of his coach Tim Gullikson and his close friend Vitas Gerulaitis. As an adult, he is wordless yet explosive, with a game so fully realized, he seldom recieves proper credit for its gorgeous classism.
There have been other champions with great individual strokes, but it's doubtful any of them had as many signature shots as Sampras. The serve fells opponents like an iron shot, the running forehand is the glory of its day, the backhand is a heavy and impenetrable body blow, the jumping overhead is a gasp-evoking show-stopper, and the volleys have the finality of ponctuation. To these must be added the stubbornness of his disposition and blindness of his ambition, the ultimate testament of which is a record-typing 12 major titles and a grip on the year-end No. 1 ranking that lasted six years.
The simple truth is that Pete Sampras has never said or done much worth repeating-exept for playing this game better than anybody you ever saw.

-Sally Jenkins

Rod Laver (AUS)

Rod Laver

Plays: Left-handed

Birthdate: 8/9/38

Born: Rockhampton, QSLD, Australia

Turned Pro: N/A

Residence: N/A

Height: 5'8'' (172 cm)

Weight: 150 lbs (68 kg)

His face was pink and freckled. His hair was sunset red. He was modest. He was shy. He stood all 5-foot-8 in his sneakers and he weighed a humble 145 pounds. In short, Rod Laver was hardly an imposing figure. But on the tennis court, he was a giant.
Having enjoyed a seat in the Wimbledon press box since 1938, I have no hesitation in saying that Laver - who won the Grand Slam as an amateur in 1962, then became the only player to do it twice when he won it again in '69 as a pro after being banned from the circuit for five years - was the greatest of them all.
Over the years, I've marveled at Jack Kramer's professionalism, Manolo Santana's grace, Tony Roche's raw courage, Ilie Nastase's invention, Jimmy Connors' service returns, Bjorn Borg's icy temperament, John McEnroe's reflexes, and Pete Sampras' fearsomely aggressive grass-court tennis. But Laver could beat them all, because his game had no weaknesses to attack. He did everything well.
A left-hander from Rockhampton, Australia he grew from a sickly child into a strong, compact fellow with a 12-inch left forearm - the same size as heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano's. His serve wasn't overpowering, but he disguised it like a crafty pitcher would. Laver rushed the net beautifully, but also excelled from the backcourt. He was a master of topspin, but could drive the ball flat, with just a hint of slice.
Yet it wasn't merely Laver's veriety that enabled him to win 11 major titles. His unshakable concentration, which I have seen equaled only by Borg and Maureen Connolly, was a formidable psychological weapon. So was his ability to unleash a sudden, devastating bombardment. The Rocket twice trailed two sets to love during his second Grand Slam run, but that just made him raise the level of his game. No one could turn on the heat, anywhere, at any time on any surface, like Rod Laver could.

-Laurie Pignon

Women

Steffi Graf (GER)

Steffi Graf

Plays: Right-handed

Birthdate: 14/6/69

Born: Mannheim, Germany

Turned Pro: 1982

Residence: Germany

Height: 5'9'' (152 cm)

Weight: 132 lbs (60 kg)

Champions ruin mere mortals. John McEnroe made you think you could copy his crazy corkscrew service motion. Andre Agassi led you to believe it was OK to take a full swing on the volley. But whose game was harder for an average player to emulate than Steffi Graf's?
She won 22 Grand Slam titles, making her a mandatory inclusion in any discussion of the greatest palyers of all time, irrespective of sex. Yet her televised matches should have been accopanied by the caption, do not try this at home. She hit her forehand off the back foot and finished in the air. In an era of two-handed topspin, she had a near-obsessive insistence on slicing her backhand. And her service toss was ridiculously high.
But the great ones have an athleticism that allows them to turn quirks into legendary strokes. That laser forehand, that court-biting backhand, and that nasty serve were among the best the game has ever produces. As well, Graf had track-star speed, unbelievable tenacity, and surreal self-confidence-did she ever doubt herself, even for a moment, when it counted?
No. She just belted every ball, won majors at an astonishing pace, and finished aff players in record time (her double-bagel victory over Natalia Zvereva in the 1998 French Open final took just 32 minutes.) It was as if she embodied the precision, single-mindedness, and indomitability of the German spirit-a stark contrast to her countryman Boris Becker, whose passion and emotion recalled Jimmy Connors and made him seem almost American. Steffi kept a perpetually even keel, never let anything get in the way of her march through event after event.
Over the years, the trouble with Daddy, and the nonstop battle against injuries, Graf grew from an emotionless, unembraceable champion into a sage, beloved veteran (among the WTA's teen terors) who retired too soon. This past year's French Open made the transformation complete: She was the underdog, the sentimental favorite. And she won - inimitable strokes and all.

-Tour�

Billie Jean King (USA)

Plays: Right-handed

Birthdate: 22/11/43

Born: Long Beach, California

Turned Pro: around 1958

Residence: California, USA

It would be easy enough to sustain a tribute to Billie Jean King simply by listing her successes on the court: a record 20 Wimbledon titles, and sigles and doubles championships by the score around the world. But her greatness lies not so much in her victories as in the force of her personality.
Physically, she seemed hardly the best-equipped player, with 20/400 eyesight (improved by her trademark blue-tinted, owlish glasses) and a great fondness for ice cream. The compensating factor, aside from her quickness and textbook serve-and-volley play, was her competitiveness. King so loved the fight that some have suggested she eased up in matches (perhaps subconsciously) just so she could experience the exhilaration of pressure point. "When the opponent is serving," she once told me, "a lot of people say, 'Please, God, make it a double fault.' Not for me. I want it."
Which is very much the way she has led her life: Challenges are there simply to be overcome. She was the leader in the fight for prize-money equality when the ratio was often 6-to-1 (or greater) in favour of the men, and in 1973 she became the first president of the Women's Tennis Association. That same year, she defeated Bobby Riggs, a high point in the women's liberation movement that helped spark the tennis boom. King also co-founded, organized, played, and coached World Team Tennis, upsetting traditionalists by urging audiences to support the players vocally ("They didn't pay thier money to come and whisper to themselves all night"). With her competitive playing days behind her, she has become the U.S. Federation Cup captain as well as one of the game's best on-air commentators - wry, perceptive, engaging.
It has been nothing but tennis for Billie Jean King since she was a 10-year-old in Long-Beach, Calif., sleeping with her racquet and dreaming of playing on Wimbledon's Centre Court. So tirelessly committed to the game is King that she once excalimed, "I don't just play tennis. I am tennis." So be it. She is.

-George Plimpton

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	Plays:	Right-handed
	Birthdate:	8/12/71
	Born:	Washington, D.C., USA
	Turned Pro:	1988
	Residence:	Orlando, Florida, USA
	Height:	6'1'' (185 cm)
	Weight:	175 lbs (79 kg)

	Plays:	Left-handed
	Birthdate:	8/9/38
	Born:	Rockhampton, QSLD, Australia
	Turned Pro:	N/A
	Residence:	N/A
	Height:	5'8'' (172 cm)
	Weight:	150 lbs (68 kg)