ESPN Tennis

After a 10-month hiatus, the Rafa & Nole show returned this weekend to rave reviews. An intriguing twist kicked off the season premiere, as Novak Djokovic upended Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo in what was supposed to be Nadal's triumphant return to European clay.

The dialogue wasn't bad either. Nadal congratulated Djokovic on winning his favorite tournament. Djokovic thanked the eight-time champion for letting him win it once.

Naturally, the reigniting of their rivalry has been greeted with enthusiasm and is the big development for the tour as it moves onward to the rest of the clay season. For the two players, though, it's all about their individual campaigns and how it affects the biggest goal of the year for both -- the French Open. Here's a look at where they stand after last week and how it affects Andy Murray's and Roger Federer's prospects as well.

Rafael Nadal

He was right. Once again, Nadal proved the most adept and insightful analyst of his own game, warning before last week that expectations of him should be lower than in past years because of his injury layoff. He struggled against Grigor Dimitrov earlier in the week and fell behind early in the final against Djokovic, battling back only to let it slip away at the end.

Although saying he was happy with his level of tennis overall, Nadal repeated that he's still lacking a little fitness because he was off for so long. Golf was the only sport he was able to play for much of that period, and he hasn't been training long enough to reach top shape yet. Against most players, it doesn't matter. Against Djokovic, it shows.

Nadal insisted his collapse when serving for the second set at 6-5 wasn't about nerves. Instead, Nadal said he just lost concentration and intensity.

"When you get tired physically, the mental part is very difficult to maintain there," he said.

The Spaniard went through something similar when returning from injury in 2009, so he knows what to do. More matches are the answer, and he'll get that this week in Barcelona.

"I feel for moments in the second set I played my best tennis of the week," Nadal said, reflecting on the final against Djokovic. "When I was doing that, I wasn't far [from] him.

"I needed a little bit more. I needed more physical performance. I needed more matches to play with this intensity all the time. I need to be completely focused in every moment.

"That gives you the competition, gives you these special things, extra things -- when you are playing against some players, maybe you don't need sometimes, but to play against Novak, to play against [a] few [other] players, you will need, and I need."

Novak Djokovic

Nadal's week ended with renewed questions, but Djokovic's ended with many answered. Should he have been playing on that injured ankle? Clearly, yes. Would his spring hard-court losses affect him? Apparently not. Did the tournament, playing in his residence of Monte Carlo, really mean that much to him? It looks like it.

It all added up to a big week for the Serb, who bent down and kissed the clay after winning the title.

"I went through pain. I went through a big challenge, mentally, physically, emotionally, and in the end, it was getting better," he said. "I think anybody who saw my expression in the end saw that it was a very emotional win."

That it came against Nadal had to be the biggest confidence boost of all, especially after he lost all their clay-court encounters last year. After starting the week obviously hampered in his movement, Djokovic's play in the semifinal against Italy's Fabio Fognini convinced him he had a chance against Nadal, and he felt the first set of the final was "the best I can play on clay."

At one point, Djokovic made a mysterious reference to the past two months being "emotionally, physically" difficult. Whatever he was talking about, it makes this victory even more significant. For the world No. 1, how he feels is often how he plays, and the high of this win should keep him rolling for the next few weeks.

"This trophy could not come in a better moment for me," he said.

Andy Murray

A loss to Stanislas Wawrinka on clay is one thing, but losing in less than an hour is another. So Murray was back on the practice courts for the rest of the week, with Ivan Lendl cracking the whip.

Improving his movement on the surface is key to improving his performance and results, goes their thinking, so he's putting in a lot of time hitting the ball. Despite losing early last week, Murray chose not to play Barcelona this week and keep practicing.

But that didn't quite match his feelings shortly after losing to Wawrinka, when he talked about the importance of competitive play.

"I need matches against top players to see what's going wrong and what's going right," Murray said.

He might have got some in Barcelona, which has both Nadal and David Ferrer in the draw.

A slow start is nothing new for Murray on clay. As he said, "Normally toward the end of the clay-court season, I start to feel better with my game and I've had some good results, but at the start I have struggled a little bit."

But quicker results are important this year; if he wants to gain ground on Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking, this is the time to do it. With relatively weak results last year, Murray has room to improve his points haul. For now, however, he's back at No. 3 behind Federer, though the two could switch again as Federer has the Madrid title and semifinals at Rome and the French Open to defend over the next few weeks.

Roger Federer

After not playing since Indian Wells, Federer is in danger of becoming a forgotten man these days. Although he practices in Switzerland, the chatter has been more about where he may not play rather than where he is playing. Local questions continue about whether he will play his hometown event in Basel in spite of disagreements about the appearance fee.

A couple of weeks ago, childhood friend and Davis Cup teammate Marco Chiudinelli stepped up the pressure on Federer to start playing the competition more. Federer has played Davis Cup only selectively for the last several years.

"Roger makes his decisions well in advance and is always honest," said Chiudinelli. "We have always said it's his decision. But naturally, we are all on the team, so I'm also disappointed he has not helped us often in the early rounds."

Federer won't play again until Madrid next month and may be happy to lie low. As far as he's concerned, not playing his rivals heading into the French Open is preferable to losing to them.

"It might have been a little bit of an advantage for Rafa to have beaten me before Paris on clay in the past seasons. That gives him confidence and might have made it a little easier to beat me in the finals," Federer said in 2009, the year he finally won the tournament after Nadal lost in the quarterfinals.

But he won't get a chance to ease back into competition either, facing the defense of his Madrid title the first week he returns.

To talk of men's tennis in the past few years has been to talk of gripping rivalries and epic matches. Those have been produced by the ability and consistency of the top players, but also enabled by their remarkable capacity for playing a heavy schedule year after year without serious time off because of injury. The hole created last year when Rafael Nadal missed nine months shows how important the players' health has been in allowing this period to unfold the way it has.

But the big four have been looking a little creaky recently -- there's Nadal's knee, Roger Federer's back, and now Novak Djokovic's ankle. Andy Murray was last seen hobbling around on the court during the final of the Sony Open in Miami, but he might be the healthiest of the bunch right now. Here's a checkup of each of them.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal has a knee problem. People keep asking him about his knee, and he's tired of talking about it. "Talking about my knee every day is not helping me," he said, sounding weary. "If something is going very wrong that doesn't give me the chance to compete, I will let you know."

Part of why Nadal is uncomfortable is that it sounds churlish to complain about injuries when you're winning so much. He is coming off a title at the BNP Paris Open in Indian Wells, and going for a record ninth straight title in Monte Carlo. "I cannot say I'm not 100 percent when I won three of the four tournaments that I played since my return," Nadal said. "The other players would say that I am arrogant."

His triumphant return spells that it's the usual Nadal-dominated clay season for most observers, but for the Spaniard, his time off the tour means playing these clay tournaments again feels anything but routine. "A lot of big emotions happened for me in the past, but this year is probably more special," he said.

He had missed competing at something, Nadal told reporters in Monte Carlo, and had tried to substitute the urge by playing a lot of golf -- and got a lot better at it.

But will the king of clay get any competition in the next few weeks? Nadal says he doesn't expect as much from himself because his body is still readjusting to the tour, and would be surprised if he did as well as years past. Of course, that's also what he said at Indian Wells.

As for how the knee really is? It's not perfect, though "getting better every day."

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic's participation in the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters this week was in doubt until practically the last minute after the world No. 1 turned his ankle during Davis Cup competition last week. He reported being "really positive and strong" after the initial tests came back, insisting that the injury will not be a problem by the time the Madrid and Rome Masters come along. But to risk it by playing Monte Carlo? Why not take this week off?

Well, this is something of a home tournament, he explained. "I'm always feeling very inspired and motivated to perform my best in this tournament because I live in Monaco and I spend the majority of my time, when I'm not in tournaments, here in this club, practicing on these courts," Djokovic said.

Djokovic would have been a bit of a question mark even without the ankle, having fallen to Tommy Haas in Miami the last time he played. He's in a tough section of the draw, with Indian Wells conqueror Juan Martin del Potro leading the challengers, so Djokovic's form and fitness should be thoroughly tested by the time the week is over.

Andy Murray

With all his variety and time spent training in Spain early in his career, Murray might be expected to flourish on the clay. But his results have lagged behind those on other surfaces, and he's hoping this is the year that starts to change.

The world No. 2 is coming off a couple of weeks training in Miami with coach Ivan Lendl, working on his movement and talking to Lendl about how to play on the surface.

And he's healthy. "I'm in better shape physically because my back's not an issue like it was last year," he said in Monte Carlo.

To try and keep it that way, Murray has given up soccer and golf -- so there'll be no challenging Nadal on the course. "I used to play a lot of football and golf but I've stopped all that now," Murray said. "I've been playing tennis a long time and you pick up things so you have to manage your body."

Roger Federer

Federer isn't in Monte Carlo, choosing to take almost a two-month break after Indian Wells. He did make one addition to his schedule, however, announcing that he plans to play his hometown event in Basel in October.

Federer's participation in the tournament was in doubt, with the two sides having trouble agreeing on the appearance fee. After six months of talks, the tournament's reported date for Federer to make a decision arrived last week -- and he relented, saying he would not refuse to play even if there was no deal by then.

"I can play at Basel without any contracts or agreements, if I feel like it," he told Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger. "To compete on home soil is every special for me."

Federer, who has been at home in chilly Switzerland for the past few weeks, also said his back took longer to recover than he expected. But he is back training again, and set to return at the Mutua Madrid in early May.

Jennifer Capriati proudly took three or four steps from the front row of luminaries to the podium where she would get to tell her story. On a near-perfect Newport afternoon, Capriati tearfully delivered her enshrinement speech into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She spoke poignantly of acceptance and forgiveness and what it meant at that moment to embrace everything she loved about the sport.

It was only a few minutes long, but she managed to squeeze in a lifetime of reflection. I was there that day some eight months ago and listened intently to a speech that was just as much about confession as it was a collection of achievements. Capriati, as she said, never left the game on her own terms, and that stung for someone who knew little else than the only place she ever really felt at home -- a tennis court. After all the arrests, the glazed-eyed mug shots, the injuries and the depression, gone were the days marred by all that melancholy.

Until now.

On Thursday, Capriati was charged after allegedly punching her ex-boyfriend on Valentine's Day. Although she was not arrested, Capriati now faces a series of offenses, including stalking and battery in North Palm Beach, Fla.

To be clear, I have no inside knowledge of what did or did not happen. For all we know, it's a terrible misunderstanding. Maybe it's not. Who knows? The point here is not to speculate and belabor this one incident or to admonish her for creating more damaging news. For a player whose career, whose life came crumbling down so many times, this matter, at least on the surface, seems low by comparison.

It's just sad to hear Capriati's name as the centerpiece to another tawdry headline when all her shortcomings seemed to vanish for good that day in Newport. Like anyone else with a modicum of compassion, I wanted the legacy of the newest hall-of-famer to end with that Hollywood moment. And yes, perhaps that's a bit hyperbolic. But think about her story in a nutshell: Teenage prodigy goes pro at 13. The next year, she reaches the semis at the French Open at the ridiculous age of 14. She wins a gold medal in at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona by beating Steffi Graf. And then … the shoplifting, the arrests, the marijuana. It would foil years of stardom.

All those transgressions led to a 14-month layoff from tennis and seasons of relative anonymity, even when she did return. And then defying any rational mind, Capriati would rock the tennis community with a championship at the Australian Open in 2001 -- eight years after her initial break from the game. Eight years! And, oh by the way, she vanquished the No. 1 player in the world, Martina Hingis, in the final. Capriati would then win the French a few months later, snare the No. 1 ranking in October and defend her Aussie trophy the next year.

So, if that's not the classic feel-good flick for a player who harbored and eventually conquered some very ambitious dreams, then what is, Rudy fans? Capriati had come so far in rediscovering her game, in rediscovering herself.

Newport was a celebration of her wins on the court but more so her win in life. And yes, that might sound hokey, and it is, but her adventure from a naive ponytailed S.I.-cover sensation to a player plagued by countless misfortunes, to the hall-of-fame champion she became, the Jennifer Capriati script was supposed to end right then, right there.

And that's why this latest incident, whatever it turns out to be, is so troubling.

The story started with his knee. It ended with his racket.

For nearly a year, we questioned and cross-examined what fraction of Rafael Nadal would be left when he eventually made his way back to the circuit. On Sunday, that interrogation finally came to a close. He squeezed by Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to win the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. It was a fitting end to a comeback already marked with various obstacles.

Now the narrative of a player beset by a career-threatening injury will finally take a healthier twist and focus on Rafael Nadal the tennis player. And that, as you might expect, should leave his many interested challengers rightfully frazzled.

For all the bluster heading into Indian Wells, Nadal looked very much like the spirited Grand Slam champion we've always known. There were no discernible signs of knee or any other physical woes. Against del Potro, Nadal found himself playing defensively and taking abrupt stops and turns for three sets, but he still showcased his imposing speed and finished points with the same jarring winners.

Nadal can now call himself a Masters 1000 champion for a record 22nd time, one more than Mr. Roger Federer. But this one has to be as much about relief as it does exultation, considering the ordeal he's been though.

For the uninitiated, and there's probably only one of you (so here's the cliff-notes version), Nadal went to Wimbledon last year and left broken. An unknown, Lukas Rosol, stunned the serial Grand Slam champ in five sets. That match knocked Rafa out of England and out of tennis for seven months with a damaged knee. Other ailments would eventually arise and delay even further any kind of return to the court.

In early February, Nadal's comeback finally began in Chile, where he lost in the finals, and it continued in two other smaller tournaments in Brazil and Mexico. Nadal won both of those titles, but they were played on the comforts of clay, and the level of competition -- well let's just say beating guys like Delbonis and Souza, even Almagro -- doesn't have the same cachet as taking down a hearty Masters 1000 field.

Amazingly, 346 days removed from his last hard-court match, Nadal's vintage game materialized with each passing round at Indian Wells, despite some laboring along the way. Ryan Harrison played him tight in the opener, and after a walkover, Ernests Gulbis had Rafa reeling before the Latvian realized he was, in fact, Ernests Gulbis and folded. But you can also credit that W to Nadal's cool championship demeanor, which, as it always does, belied his bone-crushing groundies.

But it was the big, ballyhooed "reunion of a rivalry" that set the tone of his comeback. From the moment the draw was announced, all eyes eagerly counted down the days until Nadal and Federer would square off again. The match had the electric feel of a Grand Slam final going in but left the fervent crowd flat after a straight-sets demolition. Nadal, like so many other times, appeared to have Federer beaten before they walked onto the court and then dashed through the defending champion 6-4, 6-2 with clean, crisp winners from the get-go.

Now after beating Tomas Berdych and del Potro in his last two matches, Nadal is at a near-perfect 17-1 this year, including 14 straight wins. That is, unbelievably, the best start of his career.

Against del Potro, Nadal found himself stretching and defending, chasing and clawing, but he managed to break del Potro early in the third set to solidify the win. Rafa will move back to No. 4 in the ATP World Tour Rankings.

Del Potro himself is no stranger to injury. After winning the 2009 U.S. Open, he missed 10 months to surgically repair his persistent wrist injury. But Saturday, the Argentine ended Novak Djokovic's 22-match winning streak, which dated back to last October, in the semifinals. This a day after dismissing Andy Murray from the tournament. Del Potro, who fell to 3-8 against Nadal, failed to win his first Masters 1000 title.

Sure, there are some detractors, justified or not, who will still shed a few doubts. Nadal, perhaps with the tennis lords giving him a little nudge, was able to safely avoid his other two archrivals, Djokovic and Murray, at Indian Wells. But this day, this tournament was about what Nadal did accomplish. It was about a cathartic end to a painful year, physically and most certainly mentally.

So now what? Nadal pulled out the Sony Ericsson Open, which starts later this week, as most suspected he would so as not to risk reinjury. Thus the onset of the clay season is next, and with that, the French Open, where Nadal will be the overwhelming favorite to win for an eighth time. And if Nadal was this good on a surface so evil to his knees, what's to stop him from rolling through the next few months?

Not Lukas Rosol, that's for sure.

Where were you the first time you saw Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play?

For me, it was my final day at my previous job here at ESPN. I was sitting at my desk, packing boxes and glued to the final of the 2005 NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne (now the Sony Ericsson). It was the second time they had meet. Federer was far and away the preeminent player in the game. Nadal was a phenom, one of the few Next Big Things who would actually pan out.

Federer beat him, but he fell behind two sets to love against Nadal before winning. I remember thinking back then, "Hmmm, this could be a good rivalry for years to come." Turns out I was on to something. OK, so apparently, anyone who knew anything about anyone who hit little yellow fuzzy balls on blue, green and red tennis courts knew this, too.

Anyway, watching Federer and Nadal at Indian Wells on Thursday night had a much different vibe than just one moment in this storied history. We've spent so many years dissecting game plans and shot-making and turning points between these two. So much time parsing each match, each set. This one, though, spoke less about the current state of their respective games than it did about nostalgia and cherishing what's left of these glorious, insatiable battles.

You see, a year had passed since they last played. A year! At that match was here at Indian Wells. You can blame Nadal, er the world's most famous teetering knee that is, for the sojourn this rivalry took.

In the 29th chapter in this rivalry, a healthy Nadal beat down a now-ailing Federer 6-4, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the first Masters 1000 tournament of the year. But this clash was merely a sidebar to a much bigger storyline: How much longer? How many more memories?

This isn't to say the offing is bleak and that we won't have many more Federer-Nadal matches. But we waited so long, and the future, as bright and hopeful as we want it to be, is more tenuous with each passing tournament.

What if Rafa can't withstand the intensity of the circuit the way he once did? What if Federer's tennis dotage finally catches up to him? It has to at some point, no? The squirrely back he had at Indian Wells, especially against Nadal, will only become more pervasive as time passes. What if Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray take the game over week in, week out. Sure, perhaps we're overreacting and being a little hyperbolic here, but the questions are legit, the apprehension justified.

Imagine no more Fed-Nadal, a rivalry that has withstood a generation of players and one that resonates well beyond tennis circles. Does anything in tennis even come close to giving you chills when they walk on the court? Is there a greater contrasting of styles between two stalwarts anywhere in sports?

But maybe the staying power of these two isn't going anywhere. Rafa is back and Federer never went anywhere. There aren't players outside Djokovic and Murray who can beat these two with any kind of consistency. Rafa's knee looks strong right now and we've been constantly proven wrong by Federer's capacity to ignore those vexing suggestions of what he should and shouldn't do. And, oh by the way, he's still the No. 2 player in the world. And the last time he lost any Grand Slam match before the quarterfinals, guys like Coria, Schuettler and Grosjean were relevant. So there's that.

And though we don't know what's left, we've reached the point in the Federer-Nadal history in which the rivalry itself far surpasses any singular, salient moment, or any one championship along the way. The collective credentials they've accrued is mind-numbing. Twenty-eight Slam titles, each owns a career Slam and they've snared an unthinkable 42 Masters 1000 titles. But the zeal that penetrates the sport when they meet is real -- and that's what matters now.

So when was the first time you saw Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play each other? Was it the gutsy 2008 Wimbledon final? Perhaps one of their one-sided French Open affairs? The Aussie? World Tour Finals? Nonetheless, just relish the rivalry from here on out. Don't sweat the results. Because whether you are an ardent Rafa lover or a Fed fanatic, one doesn't feel right without the other.

The doubts were running high at times last week, but Rafael Nadal is looking set to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this week. And that means all of the big four members will be playing at the same event, the first time that's happened since Wimbledon eight long months ago.

Nadal has been the missing piece of the puzzle, with a knee injury keeping him off the tour for seven months until he returned in February. The Spaniard will be arriving in the California desert fresh off an impressive week in Acapulco (with an exhibition match in New York squeezed in) and has made it clear he hasn't lost his mastery on red clay. But now the attention turns to hard courts, where Djokovic currently rules. Here's how the big four have been faring ahead of the season's first Masters event.

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic underlined his early dominance of this season by taking the title in Dubai last week, bringing his record for the year to 12-0 and his winning streak to 18-0 (excluding a loss in Hopman Cup). Playing his first event since winning the Australian Open, Djokovic handled Juan Martin del Potro and Tomas Berdych in the last two rounds without dropping a set. On this surface, Djokovic's movement and ability to move the ball around is unmatched these days. And he knows it -- a source of confidence when matches do get close. "I feel I know how well I can play and I know what my qualities are and abilities," said Djokovic.

After winning Dubai, Djokovic took in a Los Angeles Lakers game and met some of the team ahead of taking part in the L.A. Tennis Challenge before heading to Indian Wells, where the golf course will probably be one of his first stops. Never mind, his tennis doesn't look like it needs much practice anyway.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal's 6-0, 6-2 defeat of David Ferrer in the Acapulco final was simply stunning, not so much the win but the astonishingly one-sided score line against one of the very best clay-court players. Even though it came against his friend and fellow countryman, Nadal sobbed into his towel with relief afterward, exulting at such a fine performance just three events into his comeback.

He has two titles and a final so far, and even more encouragingly, his knee has responded better at each tournament. "There were days in Brazil when it was really bad, and in Chile, during one match as well. But here, it didn't hurt. It just bothered me some," he said in Acapulco. "This was the first week where I could run with complete freedom and no limitations."

Now comes the first test on hard courts, the most difficult surface for the knee, and at what will be his fourth event in just over five weeks. He is in the difficult position of needing to play matches but also needing to save his knees as much as he can, a balancing act that will also come into play over the question of whether to play the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami a few days after Indian Wells ends.

Roger Federer

Another tournament, another tough loss for Federer, this time a semifinal defeat in Dubai against Tomas Berdych after missing three match points. "That's just disappointing right there, because the match was in my racket," said Federer. "You do all the right things for so long, and then at the end you've got to explain why you didn't hit two shots decent, you know."

Berdych is one of the handful of players capable of overpowering Federer from the baseline and sensed weakness in his opponent's net-rushing strategy. "That's just show[ing] that he definitely doesn't want to play the rallies with me from the back," Berdych said. "When he doesn't feel that he has it in his hands, you know, that he can control the ball, he can do whatever he wants, then, yeah, that's what he like."

Earlier in the week, Federer had a different theory about his net approaches, laughingly suggesting that his pink shoelaces made it too easy for opponents to see him coming. "Definitely not camouflage," he joked.

Less amusing for Federer is not being able to defend his titles in Rotterdam and Dubai last month, and he now must try to make another title defense at Indian Wells. If Federer fails, he could lose yet more ground to Andy Murray, who is quickly encroaching on Fed's No. 2 ranking.

Playing a reduced schedule this year will also hurt Federer's ranking prospects, but speaking to reporters before Dubai, he suggested he might play more next year. "I need to make sure I have enough time off, so that when 2014 comes I am in a position with options, which I almost wasn't this year to a degree," he said.

Andy Murray

Murray hasn't played since the Australian Open, choosing to train with coach Ivan Lendl in Miami instead. Not much has been heard from him since an appearance at the Queen's Club media day three weeks ago, except for the announcement that he is buying a boutique hotel near his hometown. It's where Murray's brother, Jamie, was married before it closed last February and was put up for sale. Murray plans to reopen the business and hopes it will help boost the local economy.

It wasn't long before potential names began pouring in, with Jumurrah and the Murriot among the suggestions.

Nadal, meanwhile, has purchased two hotels in Mexico, so these two may now have something else to compete over apart from their bitter PlayStation rivalry.

But it's the on-court rivalries that will be the focus over the next week and a half. Not only does Nadal's return complete the big-four summit, his comeback prospects will add a little mystery to this now-familiar cast of favorites.

NEW YORK -- He sprinted out to the service line at Madison Square Garden as the applause swelled.

Cliff Drysdale is 71 years old and has spent most of his life playing, organizing and broadcasting tennis, his sport of choice. Monday, he was introduced as a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame's class of 2013, along with Martina Hingis, Charlie Pasarell, Ion Tiriac and Thelma Coyne Long.

Drysdale left the court almost as swiftly as he entered; his ESPN2 broadcast was only minutes from starting. Looked after by a security guard, he jumped into an elevator.

Was he surprised to be named a Hall of Famer?

"Yes," he said, looking touched. "It was very nice."

And then he jogged to the broadcast position, where he called the exhibition match between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka with partner Mary Joe Fernandez.

Although Drysdale was a formidable player in his day -- he was a finalist in the 1965 U.S. Open and a doubles champion there in 1972 with Roger Taylor -- perhaps his greatest contribution to the game was as an organizer. He was a co-founder of the ATP in 1971 and its first president.

Hingis, obviously, is the marquee name at the enshrinement ceremony set for July 13 in Newport, R.I. She slipped into the major mix after Steffi Graf and Monica Seles dominated and was fortunate to win five Grand Slam singles titles before the coming of the Williams sisters. Hingis, along with Justine Henin, was among the last of the mortal-sized multiple-major champions.

Pasarell, a nice player, too, joins Drysdale as an enshrinee in the contributor category. He was the No. 1-ranked United States player in 1967. More important, he was one of those who helped launch the ATP, which gave the players greater control of their collective destiny. He was an involved board member from 1971 to '78 and went on to build Indian Wells into one of the world's best tournaments.

This year, the ATP World Tour will stage 62 tournaments in 32 countries. Prize money is expected to exceed $95 million by 2014. Drysdale and Pasarell established the foundation that made it all possible.

Would Rafael Nadal be making a reported $1.5 million for a two-hour exhibition Monday night if those players hadn't been so brave?

This question was posed just as Nadal walked by Pasarell's front-row seat.

Pasarell smiled, shrugged and shook his head.

"Cliff and I were part of a very special generation of players," he said. "When the tennis went from the amateur days to the open days for professionals, that did not happen by chance. The best players were all pushing for that."

Although Roger Federer and Nadal have been vocal at times about the state of the game for the athletes themselves, they have done little to mobilize the players. The Grand Slams have increased prize money, but imagine if Rafa and Roger and their friends actually threatened a shutdown? That's what happened back in 1973, when the players united behind a suspended player, Niki Pilic, and threatened to walk at Wimbledon. The All England Club capitulated.

"We were made to look like the bad guys, but we did what we had to do," Pasarell said. "I'm not sure today's fans, or even the players, know much about any of this. We're proud that we helped give the players a say in how the business operates."

Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, the world No. 35, is not a pushover. He demolished the relentless David Ferrer in Monte Carlo on clay last year and Janko Tipsarevic in the final at Gstaad. He's taken a set off Roger Federer twice and one off Novak Djokovic.

A left-hander with a big serve, Bellucci is like most players ranked in that 30-50 range: hampered not by insufficient weapons but by consistency. He's what opposing coaches and commentators would call a "tricky matchup," where he is hardly ever the favorite but isn't a guy anyone should take lightly either.

So his victory over John Isner last week in the fourth rubber of the U.S. versus Brazil Davis Cup tie in Jacksonville, Fla., wasn't as surprising as, say, Sam Querrey's victorious but serious struggle against noisy, unheralded 135th-ranked Thiago Alves in the clincher.

The importance of Isner losing is not reflected by his one-on-one matchup with Bellucci but by where he was at this time a year ago, where over a two-month period he had beaten Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Davis Cup and Djokovic at Indian Wells, losing to Federer in the final. From that streak, Isner knew he belonged and said as much.

"When I step on the court, with my serve, I believe I can beat anyone," he said at Indian Wells. His opponents were on notice.

Isner had become "The Guy You Don't Want to Play." He pushed into the top 10. The bigness of his game transformed his weaknesses from chronic to correctable. Once he smoothed out his wrinkles, he had the firepower to be major contender material.

The problem is that Isner's game hasn't matched the expectations created by that run last year, which, incidentally, placed him at a career-high No. 9 in the world. In all four majors last year, Isner lost in five sets, failing to reach the quarters in any of them.

While the supersized portions of Isner's game -- the big serve and forehand combination -- allow him to be scary, his fatal imprecision, inability to break serve, lack of balanced footwork that creates massive unforced error counts on both wings and the questionable stamina is what makes him ripe for upset against the Belluccis and Paul-Henri Mathieus of the world.

The Isner conundrum matters because a lingering heart ailment has made Mardy Fish's status a mystery. Andy Roddick is gone. Isner (now No. 16) and Querrey (No. 20) are the American standard-bearers. The first and fourth rubbers of a Davis Cup match now belong to Isner. The draw of a major will -- at least along these shores -- focus on Isner and his chances to get deep in to the second week.

Isner missed last month's Australian Open with a knee injury and flailed badly to end the 2012 season. He is one of the most candid players on tour and has admitted that, in addition to the inconsistencies of his game, he is not playing with a high level of confidence.

Since beating Jarkko Nieminen in the second round of the U.S. Open, Isner has lost three of his last four Davis Cup matches and eight of his last 11 matches overall, which doesn't include two exhibition losses to Kevin Anderson and Tsonga at Hopman Cup.

As the American No. 1, Isner is charged with projecting confidence not just for himself but as the player toward other American players will look, just as he and younger Americans did with Roddick. Whether he is ready or not, Isner has entered a new stage in his career. He is the leader.

One major down, the rest of the season awaits. Looking forward, the Australian Open provided numerous signposts along the roadway toward Indian Wells and Miami and the clay season. For me, a couple of billboards stood out:

1. Sloane Stephens is ready

After her heady takedown of the injured -- yet plenty formidable -- Serena Williams, the question is, "ready for what?" She may not be ready yet to be favored to win a Slam, but that doesn't mean she's not ready to win one.

No, thinking highly of Stephens isn't hyperbole. Nor is it getting carried away with her terrific run. Considering Stephens as dangerous material now is merely the byproduct of two very important factors: The first is that, yes, she's that good. The second is that the field really isn't so much better than her current game right now.

In a very short time, Stephens has become the player you don't want to play. She began the Australian Open ranked 29th and is now down to 17th. She beat Williams because Serena hurt her ankle in her first match Down Under and then her back against Stephens. But it was also because Stephens made Williams nervous with her easy power on the forehand, her athleticism defensively and ability to return balls that Williams would normally hit for winners.

Stephens frustrated Williams defensively, making the 15-time Grand Slam champion hit harder and faster and less comfortably. The result was a more erratic Williams. Serena was hurt, but Stephens drove her to make mistakes. For the first time in years, Serena looked across the net and saw a player who could deal with her power far more easily than the rest.

Stephens may not be in the Williams-Sharapova-Victoria Azarenka category, but even now, though she starts slowly and struggles when she's ahead in games (she had 10 game points against Azarenka in the first set of their Aussie Open encounter and served to even the second at 5-5 before being broken to lose the match), she can compete with anyone else in the field.

2. A next stage for Roger

There is a fundamental difference between being written off and realizing that the day is coming when Roger Federer will no longer be a professional tennis player. The latter is still quite a way off, but there is a sunset quality to Federer that is nothing short of elegiac.

Federer is still ranked second, still eerily immune to letdown, still the beautiful shot-maker and still at his forceful, velvety best when challenged by the next generation. (His regal dismissal of cocky, rising Bernard Tomic in Melbourne was a prime example.) But Federer's five-set loss to Andy Murray in the semifinal underscored some obvious truths that are both painful and, in some ways, invigorating.

In the semifinal, Murray dominated Federer. He was the stronger player, the steadier player, the one who controlled who won and who lost -- or so it looked. What Murray didn't do, however, was dominate the score. Federer played with a lionish pride that robbed Murray of comfort, kept him believing that yes, there was a possibility that for all Murray was doing cosmetically, the great Federer could still win the match, could still beat him in a major. The invigorating moments drizzled throughout the match illustrated the sharklike intensity that lies so near to his elegance.

Still, it was clear that against Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, Federer will spend the rest of his days (when not on grass) an underdog against both. Watching Federer in Melbourne explains why he has scaled back the number of tournaments he will play, why he will play Indian Wells but not Miami and why he won't play Monte Carlo but said yes to Madrid. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga neared him before succumbing in a five-set quarter, and consecutive five-setters appeared to affect him. Federer is smartly hoarding his miles.

There is a beauty to watching this edition of Federer, seemingly vulnerable, viciously competitive, the fighter inside carrying the legend even more than his talent.

3. Trick or treat?

Is it time to call Tsonga the Tony Romo of the ATP? Tsonga, like Romo, puts up big numbers, can never be completely overlooked because of his ability and yet -- and yet -- will always find a way to break hearts with the crucial error at the worst possible time. Just when it seems that Tsonga has finally broken through, he (like Romo) will be the one wondering and explaining why things didn't seem to work out for him. Perhaps worse, like Romo, Tsonga suffers from that terrible malady Federer has thoroughly overcome: the ability to avoid bad losses (see: Tsonga versus Martin Klizan, 2012 U.S. Open).

Tsonga was close to Federer in the Melbourne quarterfinal, sending the match to five sets before succumbing. The question for Tsonga in 2013 is whether he possesses a marathoner's kick and can pass, reach and defeat Federer. Tsonga has a new coach, lost some weight and has confidence in fighting Federer hard. But still Romolike, he did not record a single win against a top-10 player, the damning stat of the year for any player. He and Federer may see each other in several days as both have agreed to play Rotterdam.

And so, the question remains as to whether Tsonga will have belief and momentum and move closer to beating the top players, or whether the Melbourne quarters were just an inspired, one-night tease and Tsonga falls back again.

The first time I saw Sloane Stephens live was on Court 1 at Roland Garros last year, in the famed Bullring against Samantha Stosur. It was a terrific test for Stephens, a talented American for whom great things are forecast. It was a fourth-round match, and thus Stephens had entered the business end of the tournament. She had beaten Ekaterina Makarova (who had knocked out Serena Williams at the Australian Open) in the first round, and, to reach her first quarterfinal of a major, she would have to go through Stosur, a top-10 player who defeated Serena in the 2011 U.S. Open final.

As the sun cast shadows on the Bullring, the 19-year-old Stephens fell in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, but what I remember was her losing much more than Stosur winning. She was not intimidated by Stosur's pace, no small thing considering Stosur's serves and forehands are among the sharpest in the women's game.

The second time I saw her play was a few weeks later at Wimbledon, against another highly ranked player, Sabine Lisicki. Lisicki took that third-round match in three sets 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-2, the death blows coming in the decider, when Stephens squeaked and squawked her way through unforced errors and frustration. Still, with a big serve (Lisicki is one of the bigger servers on tour, and Stephens matched her at about 117 mph) and forehand, Stephens had numerous chances to take control of the first set, only to be undone by inexperience.

Maybe Stephens is arriving faster than expected. She is ranked a career-high 25th -- the third highest American, behind Serena and Varvara Lepchenko -- but is seven full years younger than the 26-year-old Lepchenko, 11 years younger than Serena and 13 years younger than No. 26 Venus Williams. She lost 4 and 4 to Serena in Brisbane but has wins this year over 14th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova (who recently beat No. 5 Angelique Kerber in Sydney) and Laura Robson, a player she beat in the third round of the Australian Open.

The American women are showing promise. Seventeen-year-old Madison Keys (ranked No. 135) beat No. 17 Lucie Safarova and reached the quarters in Sydney before losing in three sets to Li Na, and Serena has already won a title this year, in Brisbane. The Americans have five women -- Serena (t), Lepchenko (20), Stephens, Venus and Christina McHale (35) -- in the top 40, and Stephens, who has career wins over Maria Kirilenko, Sara Errani, Cibulkova and Francesca Schiavone, might be the player best positioned for a breakout at the Aussie.

Her latest challenge comes Monday in Melbourne, when Stephens faces Bojana Jovanovski. And then a potential clash with Serena. And you can bet the tennis world will officially take notice.