Juan Carlos Ferrero only needs to reach the quarterfinals this week.

Ever since the invention of the Champion's Race, it's been so difficult for a player to take the lead and hold onto it. Prior to the advent of the champion's race, Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost in the first round for six consecutive weeks but held on to the No. 1 spot. Nowadays, to hold onto the top spot, you have to win and you have to keep winning.

Andre Agassi led the Champion's Race after he won the Australian Open, but he lost the top spot to Juan Carlos Ferrero after Roland Garros. And now after Wimbledon, Roger Federer leads the Champion's Race. But unless Federer keeps winning he'll lose it to Ferrero, who could take over No. 1 if he reaches the quarterfinals in Kitzbuhel this week. If he wins the tournament, Ferrero will take over Agassi's No. 1 spot in the ATP entry system, too. There couldn't be much more of an exciting race than right now with the three best players in the world trading spots at one, two and three.

Make or break time?
Big questions surround two Americans -- Andy Roddick and James Blake -- about how their results are going to be during the summer hard court season, which is arguably their best surface.

For Roddick to have a legitimate shot at reaching No. 1 this year, he has to have a good hard-court season and finish the summer with a win in New York. This year, he's taken his game to another level. He did that in Melbourne and he did that in London. He's had great success so far with new coach Brad Gilbert and now will be the test. The last six months of this year will really show what type of influence Gilbert can have.

And for Blake, this is a time for Blake to do some re-evaluation. He has yet to win a tournament this year, and he had an extremely disappointing clay-court and grass-court season. Unfortunately, he's coming into this summer hard court season with a shoulder that's less than 100 percent, and certainly not all the confidence in the world. He's had a remarkable, steady rise in the rankings over the past three years. Now, is when we'll see how much he has improved after such a good year in 2002. If Blake has a disappointing summer swing, don't be surprised if he starts to re-assess his approach to the game just as Andy Roddick did after Roland Garros.

Back in the game
Bohdan Ulihrach's banned-substance suspension from the ATP Tour has been overturned. As it turns out, Tour trainers might have contributed to players testing positive for banned substances because of salt tablets they've been giving players for years. After being off the tour since 2002, he lost his opening match in Kitzbuhel. ATP trainers are no longer distributing such tablets.

MaliVai Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.