With four weeks left in the tournament year, the women are hoping to scrape together enough healthy players to keep things interesting, while the men forge a fight to the finish to decide who will end 2003 as No. 1.
Last week was not a good one for the women's game, as both Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport announced they are out for the rest of the year.
Williams has not recovered from surgery on her left knee on Aug. 1 and will miss the season-ending Tour Championships in Los Angeles from Nov. 5 to 10.
Davenport, bothered for months by a painful nerve condition in two of her toes, has undergone surgery and is aiming for a January return.
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Serena's sister Venus (out since Wimbledon with an ailing stomach muscle) has yet to declare her intentions regarding the Tour Championships, which were a debacle last year, the event's debut, because of the dearth of top players. The event could be facing the absence of three California-born and raised favourites -- the Wiliamses and Davenport.
Of the two players who will head the field, Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, only Henin-Hardenne is doing herself proud. She won her eighth title of the year on Sunday with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Jelena Dokic at the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, Switzerland.
The win allowed the French and U.S. Open champion to ascend to No. 1, making her only the 13th woman to attain that spot since computer ranking was introduced in 1975.
Clijsters, after a big win over Henin-Hardenne in the final at Filderstadt, Germany, nine days ago, continues to make dubious scheduling choices.
She played five weeks in a row this past summer, culminating in her being too weary and jet-lagged to play her best at the Rogers AT&T Cup in Toronto, where she was beaten by Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya.
Entering the event in Zurich, a Tier I tournament like the Rogers AT&T Cup, Clijsters was playing the second of three tournaments in as many weeks. With several top draws unable to play because of injury, the good health of a remaining high-profile player such as French and U.S. Open finalist Clijsters is vital to women's tennis.
Nonetheless, Clijsters, needing another strong performance to fend off Henin-Hardenne's challenge to her No. 1 ranking, elected to enter the Zurich doubles with partner Ai Sugiyama of Japan.
And what happened? Last Friday, she and Sugiyama played late. Then, on Saturday, she was beaten 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Dokic in the semi-finals.
Afterward, Clijsters, 20, said: "Right now, I'm mentally and physically tired. I don't think I recovered very well after that late doubles match last [Friday] night, and this was one match too many. In the first set, I played well, but I had nothing left after that."
In today's parlance, many tennis followers would respond with a collective "Duh."
At least one Belgian, Henin-Hardenne, has learned to temper her scheduling. She played one week on and one week off during the summer and was rewarded with the U.S. Open title. It is no surprise that last Friday, two days before Sunday's victory, she pulled out of this week's event in Linz, Austria, citing exhaustion.
On the men's tour, Juan Carlos Ferrero, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 winner over Chilean Nicolas Massu in the final of the Tennis Masters Series event in Madrid on Sunday, has put himself in the driver's seat in the race for the year-end No. 1 ranking.
His chasllengers for the top spot, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer, are playing in Basel, Switzerland, this week and then in Paris at the final Masters event with Ferrero next week.
The 2003 No. 1 ranking will likely come down to the Masters Cup in Houston from Nov. 10 to 16, where Andre Agassi, on what might be called paternity leave (Jaz Elle was born on Oct. 3), will rejoin his young rivals. A man who prides himself in dealing with the elements, Agassi will be pleased that, for the first time since 1974 in Melbourne, Australian, the year's grand finale will be played (on a hard court) in the great outdoors.
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