Men

Born in Moscow, the Russian also a young sister on the professional tour, Dinara Safina. He is notoriously known for his emotional outbursts during matches and has smashed numerous rackets. Safin's game is based around his physical size and strength to outplay his opponents with big ground strokes and a powerful size. Despite his big frame he has excellent footwork and is equally comfortable on all surfaces. Many have criticised for his inconsistency, commitment and approach to the game, though some of his set backs have come due to injury. His career highlights to date include winning his first Grand Slam in 2000, when he burst on the scene to win the US Open and become world number one. Many believed his performance against Pete Samrpas in the final was the best to date as he beat the four time winner in straight sets. After his victory many pundits hailed the Russian as the new star who would dominate for years to come. In 2000 he won a further six ATP titles in Barcelona, Mallorca, Montreal, Tashkent, St. Petersburg and Paris showing his versatility across all surfaces. In 2001 he successfully defended his titles in Tashkent and St. Petersburg as well as reaching a career best quarter final at Wimbledon. In 2002 he reached the semi-finals at the French Open for the first time, before losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets and helped Russia to its first Davis Cup victory in 2002, with a 3-2 tie-breaking win against France in the final. In 2005 he captured his second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, beating Federer and Hewitt.

The Frenchman was born in Tahiti, the largest island in the French Polynesia , located in the Pacific Ocean. He has been nicknamed the "Magician" by Pete Sampras after losing in three sets at the third round of Indian Wells in 2002. He earned this due to innovative style and array of trick shots, making him a crowd favourite on the tour. Having turned professional in 1989 he has enjoyed most of his success in doubles where he has won three Grand Slam titles, two at the Australian Open in 2003 and 2004, while partnering Michael Lodra and once at the French Open in the mixed doubles with Daniela Hantuchova. In singles his best Grand Slam performance to date was reaching the quarter final stages at the Australian Open in 2006, losing to David Nalbandian in straight sets. Santoro is also acclaimed with playing in the longest match ever recorded in professional tennis, having beat Arnaud Clement in five sets at the French Open in 2004, in a matching lasting 6 hours and 33 minutes. In 2007, at the US Open he equalled Andre Agassi's record of 61 appearances in Grand Slam events. The Frenchman is comfortable on all surfaces and has won 7 Challenger titles as well as 5 individual ATP titles. His first came in his home country in 1997 at Lyon where he beat Tommy Haas in the final. He has since gone on to win titles in Marseille, Doha, Dubai and more recently in 2007 at Newport, where he beat Nicolas Mahut in the final on grass. At the end of 2007 he finished in the top 65 which was his 11th consecutive year.

The Italian from Bolzano turned professional in 2002 and considers hard and clay courts to be his favourite surface. In 2003, he qualified into his first ATP events in Kitzbuhel and Bucharest. In 2004, he posted a 5-9 record in ATP events and reached his first quarter final as a wild card in his home country at Palermo, losing to Berdych. He went on to make his Grand Slam debut at the US Open and reached the second round before losing LLodra. He also reached the second rounds at Halle and Kitzbuhel and played Davis Cup Doubles against Poland. He finished in the top 100 in 2005, highlighted by reaching his first ATP semi-final in Palermo. He made his Wimbledon debut, losing to fellow countryman Saguinetti and reached the quarter final stages at the Masters Series in Hamburg and also on the clay courts in Gstaad. In 2006 the Italian started the season well with a quarter final appearance in the opening tournament in Adelaide, defeating Pashanski and Blake before falling to Xavier Malisse. The following week, he reached his second career ATP semi-final in Sydney, losing to Andreev. During the season he also reached a quarter final on the clay courts in Valencia and a semi-final on the grass at Nottingham, where he defeated Hrbaty and Murray before falling to Jonas Bjorkman. In 2007, Seppi won a career-high 22 matches and finished in the top 75 for the third straight year. This was highlighted by reaching his first ATP final in Gstaad, losing out to Mathieu in the final. He also reached the quarter final at Kitzbuhel and a semi-final in Vienna, with wins over Baghdatis and Ljubicic. In Grand Slam play he made second round exits at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

The right-hander started playing tennis at the age of seven and turned professional in 2000. His early years were spent on the Futures tour before playing regularly on the Challenger circuit. In 2004 he won his first ATP match at Umag, where he defeated Ulihrach before losing to Volandri. The Frenchman also made his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros where he lost in the first round to Vincent Spadea. His breakthrough year came in 2005 when he qualified into the Australian Open for the first time and as a wildcard won his first Grand Slam match at Roland Garros, beating Andrei Pavel in the first round. At the Us Open he made the second round on his debut and his year was highlighted by winning his first ATP title in Bucharest, defeating Crivoi, Volandri, Mathieu, Pavel and Andreev. This was in addition to a successful year on the Challengre circuit where Serra continued to improve his ranking by winning titles in Mexico City and Rimini. In 2006 he won the opening tournament of the year on the hard courts in Adelaide to win his second ATP title, upsetting Robredo, Nieminen and Hrbaty. In August, he reached the third round at the Masters Series in Cincinnati, losing to Tommy Robredo and in the final clay court outing in Bucharest he advanced to the semi-final. In 2007 the Frenchman finished in the top 100 for the third consecutive year and this was highlighted by reaching two ATP quarter finals at Amersfoot and in Moscow. In Grand Slam play he reached the second round of all four of the tournaments. During the season he went on to post wins against James Blake at the Masters Series in Miami and against Nikolay Davydenko in Amersfoot.

The Frenchman's favourite surface is the hardcourts and considers his backhand to be his best shot. In 2005 he compiled a 17-15 record in Challenger play and won his first career title on the circuit in New Caledonia to begin the season. In April he advanced to his first ATP quarter final in Casablanca where he losing to Argentina's Juan Monaco. His Grand Slam debut came at Roland Garros, losing to fellow countryman Patience in four sets in the opening round. In July he advanced to the third round at Stuttgart, losing to Zabaleta and followed with a semi-final at the Poznan Challenger. In 2006, he reached his first ATP final and 24 matches on the tour. In the first tournament of the season he won the Challenger event at New Caledonia for the second time and followed at the Australian Open with wins over Massu and Berdych before losing to Tommy Johansson in the third round. In April he opened the European clay court circuit by reaching his first ATP final in Valencia, posting wins over Vik, Sanguinetti, Seppi and Verdasco before losing to Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. He continued this success with a third round at the Masters Series in Monte Carlo where he defeated Berdych and Ljubicic, as well as a third round at the Masters Series in Hamburg. In 2007 he finished as the country's number three, behind Gasquet and Mathieu and improved his ranking for the fifth consecutive season. The season was highlighted by winning his first two ATP titles. In winning his first title in Marseille he did not drop a set, defeating Marcos Baghdatis in the final. His second title came on the clay courts in Bucharest where he defeated home favourite Victor Hanescu in three sets.

The right-hander from Italy turned professional in 2001 and considers clay to be his favourite surface. In Davis Cup play he currently boasts an impressive 9-1 record (8-0 in singles). In 2003 he made his ATP debut by qualifying for Stuttgart, where he lost in the first round to M. Lopez. The Italian finished in the top 100 for the first time in 2004, winning three Challenger titles in San Remo, Sassuolo and San Marino. His most notable achievement was reaching the third round in his first Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros. It was here he posted wins over Tursunov and local favourite Grosjean, before falling in a five set epic against Marat Safin. Having served 5-4 for the match in the fourth set and having two match points against the Russian he went on to lose 7-5 in the fifth set. On the ATP Tour he reached his first ATP semi-final, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer. In 2005 he helped his country to defeat Luxembourg in the Davis Cup and advanced to his second semi-final at Sopot, defeating Carlos Moya and Jose Acauso. In 2006 he finished in the top 100 for the second time in three years, helped by reaching a quarter final at Buenos Aires where he defeated Monaco and Chela. In 2007, Starace finished in the top 50 for the first in his career, highlighted by reaching two ATP finals. After an inconsistent start to the season he advanced to his first final at Valencia, where he lost to Almagro. He then followed this with a quarter final at Barcelona, losing to Nadal and a third round at the Master Series at Rome, losing to Davydenko. His best Grand Slam result came at Roland Garros, losing in the third round to Federer. His second final came at Kitzbuhel, where he lost to Monaco.

Having turned professional in 1996 he initially started on the tour as a doubles specialist where he won 12 ATP titles before focussing on his singles play in 2003, while still playing top level doubles. Off the court he had been engaged to Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis, before splitting up in August 2007 and has recently been linked to fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova. Stepanek is comfortable across all surfaces and uses a serve-volley strategy. In 2006, he had his best year to date and found himself on the verge of getting into the the top ATP rankings, as he defeated Jose Acasuso in the semi-finals of the Masters Series event in Hamburg. His first singles ATP title came in February 2006 when he won the hard court title in Rotterdam, defeating Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko on way to the final before beating Christophe Rochus of Belgium in straight sets. His best performance at a Grand Slam came later in the year at Wimbledon where he reached the quarter finals before falling to Jonas Bjorkman in five sets. This was to be his last tournament of the year after suffering from a chronic neck injury which kept him out for the remainder of the season. He bounced back in 2007 and opened the season with a third round exit at the Australian Open. In the second half of the season he reached the semi-finals on the clay courts in Gstaad, then in his next tournament he won his second ATP title in Los Angeles where he beat home favourite James Blake in the final. The season continued to flourish when he reached the semi-finals at the ATP Masters Series in Canada, defeating Bjorkman, Gonzalez, Haas and Davydenko before losing to Federer.