The good news is that Lleyton Hewitt stepped up at Wimbledon and solidified himself as a top player in the world. The bad news is the guys who should contend for that position sort of fizzled out.

Roger Federer, for one, was a huge disappointment. No. 2 seed Marat Safin losing to Olivier Rochus. And Andy Roddick was disappointing in the way he played against Greg Rusedski because I thought that even if Roddick lost it would be a much better match.

So, out of the young guns, the supposed heirs to the throne, only Hewitt showed up.

Men's tennis is completely wide open. David Nalbandian getting to the final is a shocker of all shockers. My guess is clay-court specialists Gustavo Kuerten, Albert Costa and Alex Corretja are wondering why they didn't show up.

Where are you serve and volleyers? Is there anybody left out there?

Three of the four semifinalists were pure baseline players. Henman had a good run, but he didn't play with enough attacking mentality against Hewitt. You can't beat Hewitt from the backcourt, which Henman tried to do. That was a huge tactical mistake.

Before the tournament, I said the key for Hewitt would be how he holds his serve. Up to his quarterfinal with Sjeng Schalken he only lost his serve two or three times. He won a lot of free points with his serve and that puts a lot of pressure on his opponent because he's the best returner out there. It makes him that much harder to beat.

Obviously, there are some tough times ahead especially for Pete Sampras, who'll have to think about where he's headed. He's going to give it a huge run this summer, but the way he played at Wimbledon was not the Pete Sampras we know.

Andre Agassi was a much bigger surprise, given the way he's played this year. I still think he'll be a competitor this summer. But it had to have shaken his confidence to be ousted by Paradorn Srichaphan, a guy who's not a threat to win a major.

I can imagine the past 10 days have been pretty long ones for those two, thinking about what's coming up and how to regroup for the summer.

Looking ahead to the hard court season, Hewitt has had an incredible run in the United States. He won the U.S. Open, beat Agassi to take the title in San Jose, won in Indian Wells and then lost to Federer in the semifinals in Miami. He's only lost one match in his past four tournaments. He's certainly the odds-on favorite at the U.S. Open. He's got no holes in his game, and he's getting better.

One of these younger players does have the fire power to beat Hewitt: Safin, Roddick and Federer. They have the game and the weapons to beat him, but they don't yet have the strength of mind to beat this guy because he doesn't give you anything.

Who out of these young guys will step up and beat Hewitt? I don't see any of the older guys doing it. It has to be some of these younger guys who are athletic and hit the ball hard. That's a big challenge. Hewitt set the bar pretty high. If he hadn't dropped a couple of sets to Schalken in the quarterfinals, he would have won Wimbledon without losing a set. For a guy who doesn't serve and volley that's pretty impressive.

As for the women, the Williamses are the biggest stars in tennis right now. It's going to basically be them unless maybe Lindsay Davenport, when she comes back, or maybe Jennifer Capriati, who looks like she's given them her best already, can challenge them.

More likely, it's going to have to come from the younger generation. It might be girls who we don't even know now who will come up and challenge them. I don't see anyone out there right now who can do it. Can the girls coming up see how high the bar is set and come up to it? It's much harder for the people who have been out there for a while to do it. Their time is passing. It's up to the players who can make bigger improvements in their game when they are young.

Patrick McEnroe, a tennis analyst for ESPN, is a former professional player and the Davis Cup captain.