Dateline: 10/13/99

Judging by the attention tennis gets on TV, one could easily believe that the season ends with the US Open, but the fall season is more important to the WTA and ATP players than its TV presence would indicate. At stake ultimately are both the year-end rankings and qualification for the two big-money tour finales, the Chase Championships at Madison Square Garden in New York and the ATP Tour World Championship in Hannover, Germany.

The top eight singles players on each tour qualify for the season finale. On the men's side, only Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov are already assured of a spot at Hannover. Five of the women, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Monica Seles have enough points now to be sure to compete at the Chase.

With the last of the year's Grand Slams done, the big tour finales attempt to fill the excitement void, but the smaller events leading up to them also provide opportunities for a number of players to make up for disappointments earlier in the year and/or to take advantage of the fast conditions at the indoor events. Despite having played steadily since early spring, the top players still show up for these late-season tournaments. The men's and women's tours still hold a tournament almost every week.

Among the male players saying "better late than never" for this season are Arnaud Di Pasquale, who just won his first career title at the International Championships of Sicily, and Karol Kucera, who took the Swiss Indoors title. Magnus Norman added a fifth title to his greatly successful 1999 by winning the Heineken Open in Shanghai, China.

On the women's tour, both big names and lesser ones are earning titles. Martina Hingis won the Porsche Grand Prix for a third time. Fabiola Zuluaga won her seventh career title at Brazil Ladies Open.