Fabrice Santoro’s dizzying career of twenty years of competing in Grand Slam tournaments will come to an end either at the U.S. Open or perhaps next year’s Australian Open.   He is profiled in the August edition of Tennis magazine that arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and last week was featured in an excellent piece in The New York Times, pointing out that he has played 20 of the 24 players ever ranked No. 1 in the world since the 1973 ATP system began, beating all but four.  His game with two hands on both sides, spins, drop shots and lobs is like no one else above a 4.5 NTRP rating.  I saw his underspin bring Jan-Michael Gambill nearly to tears in the second round of the 1999 U.S. Open, a rare match of players hitting two hands on both sides.  I hope he hangs on as long as he can because I am am sorry to see him go.  There is no one else like Fabrice, and in the era of hardhitting 6 foot, 6 inch galuts wielding rocket launchers with Luxilon strings, there will never be another to compare.

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