A fortnight till the French :o)

The first half of the fortnight was all about the comeback trail on the WTA tour. Former teenage prodigy turned burnt-out twentysomething American Jennifer Capriati, had a very good comeback run at the International Damen Grand Prix Hamburg Open, after a recovery period from a shoulder injury. Capriati went without dropping a set in her early rounds, earning a quarterfinal berth against top ranked Martina Hingis. Inevitably, Hingis dominated with a 6-1 6-3 win, showing Capriati just how much work it will take in order to be competitive at the top again. This idea was reinforced at the Italian Open, when Capriati suffered a second round defeat to Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir (who went on to defeat third seed Amanda Coetzer in the third round) 6-3 6-2. A not-as-highly publicised comeback trail was on Mary Joe Fernandez's agenda, and looked to be well on top of things at the Croatian Bol Ladies tournament, where Mirjana Lucic happened to successfully defended her title (the title which rewrote history when Lucic became the only woman in history to win the first tournament she entered). Seeded 2nd, Mary Joe had a successful 6-2 7-6 (10-8) first round win over Francesca Lubiani, but unfortunately, the wrist injury which kept her out of the tour for five months prevailed in her second round match-up with Sandra Cecchini where Fernandez retired 5-2 down.

Onto the men's tour. World #1 Pete Sampras showed he was back with his campaign for the AT&T Challenge title in Atlanta. Although there wasn't a great deal of depth in competition, there were still a few problems which he could have expected on his way up the draw - for example, second seed Jason Stoltenberg, who traditionally has a most successful run throughout the US Clay Court season, and third seed Jim Courier, who had just captured the clay court title in his previous tournament. Perhaps luck was on Mr Sampras' side when Courier, perhaps feeling the effects of a hard-fought battle in the final the previous day, was eliminated from the draw in the first round to Brazilian Marcio Carlsson 6-3 2-6 6-4. Meanwhile, it was always looking to be a final between the top two seeds, what with Sampras slowly but surely battling his way to the end of the draw, and Stoltenberg more so impressive, with his semi-final defeat of up-and-coming Romanian sixth seed Andrei

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