After the Australian Open back in January, we asked some questions that were raised by that tournament and that would be answered over the course of the year. With the final major tournament of the year almost completed and the season winding down, let's revisit those questions and see how their answers worked themselves out.

Noticing his increasing injury problems, we wondered if Pete would be able to perform up to his standards in the most important events of the year 2000. Certainly Sampras showed that he could indeed rebound, winning his seventh Wimbledon and reaching the US Open final ? making him the only man to reach two major finals ? in addition to his Ericsson championship in March.

Sampras may not dominate the tour year-round as he once did, but that fact does not appear to concern him much, as he is focusing his efforts on the four majors and sometimes appears half-hearted at the regular tour events. The ATP, perhaps frustrated with Pete's seeming disinterest in its tour, saw fit to build its promotional efforts around the rising young talent with its controversial "New Balls Please" campaign. It will be interesting to see how Sampras approaches the rest of the season, featuring i ndoor tournament in which he traditionally shines. Will he make a run at the number one title that he lost last year?

We also noted that the Swiss star was developing a pattern of being unable to defeat the heavy hitters in the top five, notably the Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport. This pattern definitely has continued this season. Hingis usually plays hard-fought matches against "those big girls", as she calls them, but with the exception of a win over Davenport at the Ericsson final appears unable to get the better of her taller, stronger, fiercer-hitting rivals.

Given Martina's size, body type and stroke production, she has never been, nor will she ever be, a power player. Guile and accuracy are the weapons the Swiss star brings to the table. Indeed, during last week's dramatic U.S. Open semifinal against Venus Williams Hingis appeared to use those tools well enough to place herself in a position to win at 5-3 in the final set, but was undone by her own tentative errors as well as some excellent winners by her opponent. This match indicated that Hingis is stil l mentally and physically vulnerable to the big-hitting baseline play that, like it or not, has taken over the women's game.

I guess not! The sisters continue to avoid concurrent tournament appearances in almost all events except the Grand Slam tournaments. However, nobody seem to mind this much. Furthermore, it has not been an obstacle in Venus's march to number one. Given the spotty quality of their rare encounters, their mutual avoidance is probably a blessing in disguise.

The impressive semifinal appearances of Norman and Capriati in Australia back in January appeared to augur a banner year for them.

Certainly Norman responded in style with an exceptional clay court season what propelled him to the top of the ATP's championship race. Magnus fell back once the tournament moved to the grass and hard courts, but he recovered (after a motivational pep talk from Bjorn Borg, according to reports) to win the Hamlet Cup the week before the U.S. Open, followed by an honourable run the the quarterfinals in New York last week. Hard-working and solid, Norman should be a fixture at the highest level of the sport for years to come.

Alas for her fans, Capriati turned out to be a bust. Just when things appeared to be going her way, her commitment to the sport started wavering once again, and her excellent coach Harold Solomon threw up his hands in dismay and turned his attentions to a new pupil, Mirjana Lucic. After a brief injury layoff in the spring, Capriati returned to the tour bulky and lead-footed. Jennifer's career seems destined to continue its roller-coaster mode, in which the peaks are never particularly high.

Despite having softer-paced baseline games that appear out of place amidst all the savage slugging perpetrated by their younger tour consoeurs, the two veteran Spaniard continued to motor along quite nicely, with Arantxa still hanging aroung the top ten and Conchita making a surprising run to the Roland Garros final. Their time to fade will come eventually, but hasn't arrived quite yet.

If nothing else, they serve as a reminder that there is still room for stylistic diversity in the women's game.