Tommy Haas is feeling pretty good. It's mid-morning on Wednesday in Sydney, Australia. The sun is shining and he's about to go hit a few tennis balls. The 22-year-old German's game has never been better as the first Grand Slam of the year is getting ready to start next week Down Under.

	Last year's No. 1, Gustavo Kuerten is part of the new blood looking to fill the shoes of past champions.

Haas is coming off a surprisingly easy first-round victory (6-3, 6-2) against Todd Martin and last week he ripped through the field at Adelaide to win his second career ATP Tour tournament. In the quarterfinals, Haas dispatched defending champion and fellow star-in-waiting Lleyton Hewitt. In the ATP's new world order, the so-called Race of Champions, Haas is a transcendent No. 3.

"[Pete] Sampras and [Andre] Agassi are the guys who have been controlling the tennis game, but they will be gone in the next few years," Haas said from his hotel room. "There will be some room at the top, yes. It will be interesting to see who can do it.

"I think it will be some of the guys from the 'New Balls' commercial."

Tennis fans probably remember the ATP Tour's over-the-top promotion from last year that prominently featured emerging players and the "New Balls, Please" slogan. This year, the Tour has taken it a step further with a, uh, ballsy calender and a few more fresh faces.

It begs the question: Who will follow Sampras as the world's next dominant player?

After an unprecedented six years as the ATP Tour's No. 1-ranked player, Sampras relaxed his schedule in 1999 and Agassi became No. 1 for the first time in his 14-year career.

At the end of 2000, Sampras, 29, and Agassi, 30, were ranked No. 3 and No. 6, respectively. Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, 24, finished the year at No. 1, followed by Russian Marat Safin, 20, at No. 2 and Sweden's Magnus Norman, 24, at No. 4.

Kuerten, a reedy 6-foot-3, 165 pounds, has become a more consistent player after breaking through with a victory at the 1997 French Open. He repeated at Roland Garros last year for his second Slam and played well on all surfaces.

"During my vacations I spent time thinking about what I'd done and achieved in 2000," Kuerten said last week in Brazil. "I could really enjoy finishing the year as the number one, enjoyed my first win on hard courts, my first win indoors, the second French Open title and how good it is. Now, I want to repeat it.

"Now it has sunk in that I'm the number one, but all of the tournaments I won feel part of the past already."

Kuerten, Sampras (Wimbledon) and Agassi (Australian Open) were joined among the 2000 Grand Slam elite by Safin, who torched Sampras in straight sets in the U.S. Open. Kuerten and Safin seem to be the consensus pick among tennis aficionados as the man most likely to dominate.

"I like Kuerten. I think he's going to stay up there," said ESPN's Cliff Drysdale from his Florida home on Wednesday. "He's a perennial threat. Safin, obviously.

"I like [Chile's Marcelo] Rios as the comeback kid this year; as bad as his attitude about life is, he's a great player. I'm not as high on the Germans (Haas and Nicolas Kiefer). I like Lleyton Hewitt, who is already a great player, but I think he is somewhat limited. I don't think he has the firepower of a guy who is going to stay there.

"Let me tell you something, though: You can't count out Sampras and Agassi just yet."

Drysdale will be on hand in Melbourne, along with Patrick McEnroe, Mal Washington, Pam Shriver and Mary Joe Fernandez next Monday (11 p.m. ET Sun., ESPN2) when play begins at the Australian Open. Drysdale is leaning toward Agassi, who he said would be "very, very disappointed" if he didn't do "very, very well" there.

So who will win in Australia?

Agassi will be ready, to be sure. Sampras, however, won the Australian Open in 1994 and 1997 but has had difficulty jump-starting his seasons in recent years. Kuerten, despite his lofty position and top seeding, is not a viable candidate. He lost in last year's first round to Albert Portas.

"The Australian Open is going to be a challenge for me," Kuerten said. "I've never played well there, and I'm trying something different. As the season finished very late, I'm not playing any warm-up tournaments. But I will get there one week before the tournament starts, relaxed, well-prepared and fresh. Hopefully, this year things will be different there."

If Agassi is the sentimental favorite, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov actually might have the best chance to win. He won the tournament in 1999 and lost in last year's final to Agassi. Patrick Rafter, the two-time U.S. Open winner, has never won the championship in his homeland, but is said to be healthy again. Fellow Aussie Hewitt has a sinus condition that will probably require surgery after the tournament.

Norman, who is coming off a serious bout of the flu and Haas, who saw his 6-0 start to the season end Wednesday in a two-tiebreaker loss to countryman Rainer Schuttler, could play their way into the second week.

Safin is again the mystery man. The lithe athlete who stunned Sampras in the U.S. Open, has been struggling with a sore elbow. He saw a doctor Wednesday in Australia but has yet to pull out. He may well play but could risk missing as much as a month.

Because he is four years younger than Kuerten and, at 6-4, 180, has a bigger game, Safin represents the future. He handled Sampras' usually deadly serves almost with disdain in Flushing and out-served him, as well.

The biggest adjustment to life at the top, Kuerten said, will be mental.

"You have to deal with pressure all the time," he said. "I've learned to deal with it in the past years, and I think I showed that. What Safin and I had to go through at the end of the year, deciding everything in the last tournament was big pressure. But I didn't feel it. Obviously, sometimes you feel a little bit because you're not a robot. You have feelings, but you have to deal with it otherwise you can't make it there."

In the ATP Tour's year-end singles championships, with the No. 1 ranking on the line, Kuerten defeated Sampras in the semifinals and Agassi in the final, winning five of six sets. Safin, meanwhile, lost to Sampras in round-robin play and Agassi in the semis.

"I used to say that my goal in terms of rankings was to reach a higher position," Kuerten said. "Now, I can't go anywhere else, so it'll be a challenge to keep the number one spot and also something new for me."