Players face important two weeks' work

On Tennis:Roger Federer is 26 years old today, while Rafael Nadal was 21 during the 2007 French Open. For the age profile for men's tennis (although certainly not for women's tennis) they are still reasonably young players, Nadal with 10 more years at least and Federer with five.

This week the world's number one- and two-ranked players are in Canada playing in the Masters Series in Montreal as the rest of the world looks on and wonders if there is anyone who can beat either when it really counts.

This is a busy few weeks for the two and, once again, a fraught time for the rest of the draw, who, for almost three years, have not been able to bridge the gap.

All of the top 20 players in the world are playing in Canada and the main question being debated in their well-appointed locker-rooms is how many of them (more realistically it might be which one of them) have a realistic chance of breaking the ATP Masters Series and Grand Slam domination of Federer and Nadal.

The Swiss and Spaniard have won 18 of the past 23 Masters Series titles since the start of the 2005 season and no one, other than Nadal, has beaten Federer in a Grand Slam since the 2005 Roland Garros semi-final, a venue where the Spaniard has never lost. The older player has twice won 27 successive Grand Slam matches.

This week in Canada and the following week in Cincinnati are the precursor events for the US Open; on August 27th the top players in the world will migrate towards the north-east coast of the continent to play at Flushing Meadows for a prize fund of $19.6 million over two weeks.

The US Open, being the largest (in terms of attendances), brashest and loudest of the four Majors, has raised its prize money by over $1 million since last year in the single biggest annual increase in the history of the event.

This year, the men's and women's winners at Flushing Meadow will also play for $1 million in bonus prize money, while the second-place finishers can earn up to an additional $500,000. The third-place finishers may also take home $250,000 on top of the tournament earnings as part of an incentive for the top players to compete in the American summer events.

The US Open is also expected to attract over 640,000 fans and claims to be the highest attended annual sporting event in the world, largely, it must be said, because there are not that many global sporting events that are staged for two weeks every year. But even a drug-ravaged Tour de France could put up a strong case there.

So, the next two weeks' work for the professional elite is hugely important to their standing for the final Grand Slam event of the year and, from Federer's point of view, this week will also indicate what sort of shape he is in to make yet another run for a Major. He has not played competitively since equalling Bjorn Borg's record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles back in July and, in a sense, is coming out of a brief period of hibernation.

After the clay court season he said his body had been battered and bruised and that he had been looking forward to the softer, less grinding nature, of grass court tennis. But with the huge prize fund in New York combined with the $2,450,000 prize funds for both Montreal and Cincinnati, the next three weeks' play will be as lucrative a period for the players as any on the tennis calendar. Their millions in the bank doesn't blind them to the millions that are still ahead.

A few weeks ago, Tom Higgins's book on Irish tennis was reviewed and quite a few people emailed in wishing to know where it could be purchased.

As it happens, we didn't exactly know where people could lay their hands on it but the author made contact recently explaining the reasons for minor confusion on the issue.

The hardback, three-volume The History of Irish Tennis was an extremely expensive edition to produce and, while there was some sponsorship available, it only covered a fraction of the printing costs. In addition the cost was kept below the market value in order to make it available to as many people as possible.

Due to the prohibitive costs at the distribution stage, the book is only available in about 20 independent bookshops and several clubs, such as Fitzwilliam and Carrickmines, in the Dublin region.

It can also be obtained directly from Sligo Tennis Club by sending a cheque for €89 (for three hardback volumes running to over 1,700 pages and containing hundreds of photographs), with name and day-time phone number.

Other purchase locations are available on the website: www.historyofirishtennis.ie.