Q: Should women play a best-of-five set match in the semifinals and finals at majors?

I think this question is primarily raised by Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam tournament in which men and women are paid unequal prize money, with the men getting 30,000 more pounds.

The argument is they are on the court longer, and playing more tennis than the women. I'm not sure the eventual results would change drastically if the women played longer, and I can't say I feel such a change is necessary, but that's not saying I oppose it.

Could the women play best-of-five matches in the semifinals and finals at the four majors? Yes, physically I feel they can.

Would playing a best-of-five match benefit a woman who may have gotten off to a slow start and lost the first set, but then showed signs of coming back only to lose a competitive second set and the match as well?

Well, I see the point there -- that by playing best-of-five matches it gives the player who lost the first set a whole other set -- besides the second set -- to turn a match around and stage a comeback.

So while I don't have a really strong feeling either way on making the women's matches longer in the final two rounds of a major, such an idea is probably worth trying. I think the majority of fans would like to see more tennis than they are seeing in best-of-three women's matches.

With tennis experiencing other changes nowadays, maybe the women should try this and see if they and the fans end up liking it. And it could help in their push for equal prize money.

Q: Why is the United States falling behind many other nations in developing a next generation of elite tennis players?

I don't believe there is just one definitive answer to this question, but rather multiple reasons that should be cited.

The chief reason is that other nations like Russia and China that didn't produce elite women players in the past are now doing so. For some of the years I was playing on the WTA Tour the Russian women weren't even allowed out of their country to play in tournaments around the world.

But when tennis became a medal event at the Olympics, it changed the thinking and the investment in the sport and players made by countries like Russia and China. Look at all the money China is pouring into tennis in preparation for Beijing hosting the next summer Olympics in 2008.

Players from other countries now appear to be much hungrier for success than they were in the past. They have seen examples of players from their homeland earning good money and living good lifestyles by becoming top pros.

I also think that in the United States some of the kids nowadays want instant gratification, and tennis isn't that way as it takes a long time to get good at the sport. So many hours are needed to master the game.

Many American kids would rather get instant gratification through video games, skateboarding, etc. Kids today have so many different things competing for their interests and their time.

The United States Tennis Association may need to take a new approach in searching out and finding those among our youth with the greatest potential and the greatest desire to excel in the sport.

This new approach would be to identify these kids when they are eight and nine, and not 10,11, and 12. I think that's getting too late a start on developing their potential to someday become elite pros.

It's not that America doesn't have the tennis talent anymore in its youth, it's just that with other countries now in the mix with elite players, the U.S. needs to get an earlier start on training and molding the potential stars of the future.

Q: Why has there been such an emergence of very good Russian players on the WTA tour?

We touched on this in the above question, but to expand on it, I think the publicity generated by Anna Kournikova and the fact that she was traveling the world and becoming rich served to motivate many young Russians to strive to develop their tennis talent and become top players.

The Russian government changed its ways and began providing more courts and more opportunities for young players to learn the game.

I also think that competition within players from the same country helps breed success in them. These players were going against each other from the time they were eight or nine years old. This competition, and the rivalries that developed out of it, fueled the development of today's top Russians on the WTA Tour.

It also didn't hurt that some of the top Russians we now see on tour had solid coaching in their country, especially from the mother of Marat Safin, who has won two majors in his career.

What's inside all these young Russians is an intense passion for the sport, and an intense hunger to succeed at it. And they certainly are making their mark.

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