ANDREI AT A CROSSROADS - with ANDREI MEDVEDEV, you just never know what's going to happen, and he proved the point again in St Petersburg this week. Having not played an ATP event since Sopot in July, he defeated last week's Tennis Masters Series Stuttgart winner, Tommy Haas. The 27-year-old Medvedev openly talks about retirement, but he isn't done yet. "Frankly speaking, I've started to think about my retirement," he confirms. "I'm tired of traveling. I want to have a family, children, a house of my own, dogs, cats and so on." But the old competitive vibe is still there, and another comeback could be on the cards. "I'm a very ambitious person," he says. "If I want something, I push my way through and I stop at nothing. If I decide to play again, I'll do my best. If deep in my heart I decide that I want to play tennis, and my private life will push me towards tennis, I'll put all my effort in it - I'll lose five kilos if necessary, start training, gain good form and regain my ranking." Either way, the Ukrainian has no complaints about a sport that has treated him well. "I think that sport has given me everything," he says. "I consider myself the happiest man in the world because I have such a wonderful occupation."

BILLY'S MAGIC CREAM ATP players already know that when they visit ATP trainer Bill Norris with an injury, they're likely to come out feeling like new, and this week in St. Petersburg, Norris revealed one of his secrets. "Last night I applied some of my famous 'Rub Dub' massage cream to MARAT SAFIN," said Norris, after the Russian had defeated David Prinosil in straight sets. ìAfterwards, Marat told me that it was so hot that he never moved so fast on court in his life." Rub Dub anyone? BEHIND THE MIKE MAGNUS NORMAN, out of action with a hip injury, can't trade ground strokes with THOMAS ENQVIST just yet, so he's taken to throwing questions at his old mate. The Swede made his first appearance as a commentator on Swedish Television (SVT), interviewing Enqvist. "I was nervous as heck," said Norman, after his debut at the other end of the microphone. Enqvist was more complimentary of Norman's performance. "He was better than most [interviewers]," Enqvist said.

MIRNYI TAKES IN THE SITES Belarussian MAX MIRNYI went sightseeing in St. Petersburg followed by the local TV station and photographers. Mirnyi, who reached the Tennis Masters Series Stuttgart final last week with wins over GUSTAVO KUERTEN, GORAN IVANISEVIC, PETE SAMPRAS and YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV, was accompanied by his father / coach Nikolay. "At school in Minsk I studied the history and buildings of this beautiful and important city. It's good to be able to see them now," said Mirnyi, who visited the statue of Peter the Great, St. Isaac Cathedral, Spas on the Blood, the Astoria hotel and posed next to one of the many Lion statues, one of the landmarks of the city. St. Petersburg, the former capital of the Russian empire, will celebrate 300 years of                                                               history in 2003.

TOURNAMENT TALES IN BASEL - ROGER FEDERER was presented with the Swiss Tennis Player of the Year award. The readers of the Basler Zeitung had voted the 20-year-old Wimbledon quarterfinalist the best Swiss player of 2001. "It's nice, I feel honored," said Federer. ATP players Tim Henman, Michel Kratochvil and Nicolas Thomann joined 1,200 Swiss youngsters on Wednesday at the annual Junior clinic at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. IN STOCKHOLM - Seventeen-year-old ROBIN SODERLING received an award for being the Swedish Tennis Junior of the Year at the if... Stockholm Open, where he advanced to the second round by defeating Ramon Delgado. Soderling is the fourth recipient of the award which was given to Andreas Vinciguerra in 1998, Sofia Arvidsson in 1999 and Joachim Johansson last year. IN ST PETERSBURG - Following his surprising defeat in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open, DOMINIK HRBATY visited the Ermitage museum, one of the most famous museums in the world. The Ermitage houses almost three million exhibits and is made up of five buildings including the Winter Palace, the former residence of the tsars, which was built in 1762. "It was amazing, a great learning experience," said Hrbaty who was joined by his doubles partner DAVID ADAMS. "We only saw a small part of it, I hope to come back." FABRICE SANTORO and DENIS GOLOVANOV took part in the Mercedes-Benz pro-am, while young Russian star MIKHAIL YOUZHNY was mobbed by fans in the autograph area. YEVGENY KAFELNIKOV, MAX MIRNYI, NICOLAS MASSU, JACOBO DIAZ, DAVID PRINOSIL and ALEX CALATRAVA were among the players enjoying some traditional Russian folklore ballet at the player party at the Olympia Club.

WEDDING BELLS ANDRE AGASSI and Stefanie Graf have tied the knot. They were married on Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple chose to exchange their vows in a small, private ceremony before Judge Michael Cherry. They have been dating since they both won Roland Garros in June 1999, and are expecting their first child in December. "We are so blessed to be married and starting this chapter of our lives," they said. "The privacy and intimacy of our ceremony was beautiful and reflective of all we value." INJURY UPDATE Magnus Norman is on the mend, and planning to get off his crutches in three weeks. "I feel a lot better now, and the pain is not the same as before," he told the Swedish news agency TT. The Swede is still holding out hope of returning in January, or for the South American clay court swing in February and March. Julian Alonso is taking a break from the game. The Spaniard is currently suffering from a groin injury and planning to take six months off.

MEDIA MONITOR TOMMY HAAS has enjoyed his fair share of attention in the aftermath of his Tennis Masters Series Stuttgart triumph. FOCUS wrote that Haas "awoke the Sleeping Beauty Germany with a kiss" ANDY RODDICK and MARAT SAFIN are the inspiration of the US Postal service, writes Richard Pagliaro in Tennis Week. Says Pagliaro: "The U.S. Postal Service is vowing to "serve up faster, more reliable shipping" in a new marketing campaign targeting business customers with a tennis-tinged theme. The new ad campaign features a postcard with a tennis player striking a volley as he slides across a clay court. An immobile doubles partner - a blue mailbox - stands next to the player with the caption: "Great news! Your racket's here! There's still hope!" emblazoned on the side of the mailbox."In his weekly mailbag on CNN-SI.com, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim weighed up the future of men's tennis. "[LLEYTON] HEWITT has an excellent chance becoming No. 1 by year's end," he writes. "Long-term, [ANDY] RODDICK has more power and more weapons, but he also might be more prone to injury. The future of tennis also includes Marat Safin, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Guillermo Coria, Tommy Robredo AND Mikhail Youzhny among others. But no question Hewitt and Roddick could become rivals. If you were at their quarterfinal match at the US Open, you would be well advised to keep your ticket stub."

QUESTIONS PLEASE Got a question about the ATP? Let us know and weíll try to get an answer. Q: Why was Lleyton Hewitt fined for withdrawing from the if...Stockholm Open? A: Because it was a late withdrawal. A late withdrawal is defined as occurring after 6 p.m. Central European Time on the Friday prior to the tournament. The amount of a fine is calculated based on a player's Entry System Position and doubled if he also is seeded. As a Top 10 player seeded in Stockholm, Hewitt's fine amounted to $40,000.

"While I completely understand the deep disappointment that tournament organizers and fans feel any time an exciting, top-ranked player such as Lleyton Hewitt must withdraw from an event, we should keep in mind the player's perspective. Once a player determines that he's not fit enough to compete at a professional level, it is his responsibility even when facing fines and losing a chance at prize money to not take a place in the draw. We should respect a playerís decision if he is willing to forego income in order to uphold the high standards of competition on the ATP circuit. In fact, we should expect nothing less," - Mark Miles explains his thoughts on Hewitt's withdrawal from Stockholm. "Maybe for Spanish fans the Grand Slams, such as Roland Garros or Wimbledon, are more important, but I consider the Masters [Cup] the most important competition of the year," - Juan Carlos Ferrero states his priorities. "I've always had the will to win, but those victories in Stuttgart gave me a lot of confidence and now I know I belong with the top players," - Max Mirnyi feeling at home with the best on the ATP tennis circuit.

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