Sampras may not be a cinch to claim a fifth title at the US Open, which starts on Monday, and balance his trophy case with the five big ones from Wimbledon, but who else is a more likely candidate to win this year?

Roy Emerson's record 12 Grand Slam titles is there for the matching if Sampras can win seven straight matches once more at the ever-expanding, ever-more-beautiful US National Tennis Center. There's no pressure on Sampras, just turned 27, to tie Emerson right away, but he'd just as soon get this long-anticipated record out of the way, if only to stop talking about it.

Agassi is in pretty good shape, too. Which is a whole lot different from a year ago.

Australia's Rafter may also be a threat to Sampras. Rafter's world changed when he won the Open last year, but after a stretch of patchy tennis, he may be up for the challenge of defending his title. Sampras, Agassi and Rafter are among perhaps eight men who could capture the Open.

Among the women, the number jumps to about a dozen. Defending champion Martina Hingis of Switzerland, but consider how spotty and, at times, indifferent her game has been this year since winning the first major in Australia. Remember the surge Venus Williams put on to get to the final last year, and the way she's matured this year. Lindsay Davenport has been on a tear this summer. Think about indefatigable Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario winning the French Open, and Jana Novotna striking another blow for the older set by capturing Wimbledon at last.

Also, the likes of Nathalie Tauziat, Natasha Zvereva, Conchita Martinez and, most obviously, Monica Seles, pounding away, free of pain and worry, showing flashes of her once-invincible ground-strokes. And, finally, don't forget the budding brilliance of Serena Williams and Anna Kournikova, nor Steffi Graf, returning after a year on the sidelines, her fragile knees and back and ankles holding up.