Arguably one of the world's best tennis players ever, Pete Sampras found an old tennis racket in his family's basement at age 3 and was immediately hooked on the sport. At age 16, he turned pro, and at age 19 was the youngest men's player ever to win the U.S. Open Tennis Championship. He went on to win 64 tournaments and 14 majors, including 7 Wimbledon titles, 5 U.S. Open titles and 2 Australian Open titles. He won over $43 million in prize money. He was ranked number 1 in the world for 286 weeks, 102 weeks consecutively, and was a credit to the professional ranks of tennis for over 15 years.

Over his professional career, his singles record was an amazing 762 wins and 222 losses. His record in Grand Slam events was equally impressive at 203 wins and 38 losses. His last professional ATP tournament was in 2002. While he was only ranked as the 17th seed in the tournament, he won, going out as the champion he always was. Sampras also competed in the Davis Cup Series 8 times and had an impressive record of 19 wins and 9 losses, while his team won the cup in 1992 and 1995. The only title to elude him was The French Open at Roland Garros.

In 2006 Sampras announced that he would play in World Team Tennis events and in 2007, he played Roger Federer in an exhibition match in Seoul, Korea and also in Kuala, Lumpur. He continues to compete and this year he has already won 2 Outback Champions Series titles.

Leo Van Malderen founded Luxilon Industries & C? pvba in 1959. Luxilon Industries is a world leader in filament technology and is headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium. The preferred tennis string of most top professional tennis players was natural gut. Natural gut strings delivered the “great feel” tennis professionals are looking for; but its drawback was that it lost tension quickly and was not very durable.

Luxilon Industries NV manufacturers an elite wide range of unique strings, made from poly for racket sports. They are the only producer of Luxilon Big Banger strings, and is exclusive to the Association of Tennis Professionals and the number 1 string used on the pro tennis tour. The Luxilon Big Banger strings became the official string for the Women's Tennis Association in 2004. More than half of the Association of Tennis Professionals Top 100 players use the Luxilon strings, and about forty percent of the Top 100 players for the Women's Tennis Association.

The Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power 16 string offers increased spin capability, control and power. This string is very well suited to midsize frames with dense string patterns and is unaffected by outside elelments. Big Banger ALU Power 16 comes in two colors: silver and blue. The Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power Fluoro 17 has a softer twist and is more comfortable that the Big Banger ALU Power. More control and spin are available with a thinner gauge. This string is gray in color and is composed on co-polymer, fluocarbon resin and aluminum fibers; and is not affected by weather with excellent durability. The most durable of all is the Big Banger ALU Power Rough. It is silver in color and unaffected by weather making string movement minimal.

Maria Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987 in Nyagan, USSR. Sharapova was born and raised in Russia by her parents Yuri and Elena Sharapova. Maria’s father, along with family friend Aleksandre Kafelnikov, began coaching her at a young age. Although Maria had an enormous amount of talent, many gave her advice that she should get some professional training. Maria and her father decided to take the advice from others and the two moved across the ocean to Florida in the United States. Maria’s mother was not able to make the move initially, so Maria and her father did what they could to make ends meet.

After years of practicing, it all paid off in 2001 when Sharapova turn professional. Sharapova is known for her beauty both on and off the court and her powerful baseline play. Sharapova reached the finals in the Australian Open, which made her the youngest to ever do so. Over the course of her professional career, Sharapova has 19 career titles and wins in each of the major tournaments. Sharapova was once ranked No. 1 in the country for a short time in August 2005, but soon lost it to Lindsay Davenport. Sharapova has had some success in doubles as well; she has three career titles and reached a ranking of 41st.

Sharapova currently resides in Bradenton, Florida, but maintains her Russian citizenship. Along with her successful career in tennis, Sharapova also has many endorsement deals. Some of the companies and products that Sharapova endorses include Motorola, Canon, Palmolive and Sony Ericsson.

The Williams sisters, better known as Venus and Serena Williams, are two sisters that have found great success as professional women tennis players. Both Venus and Serena have won many titles over the course of their careers in both singles and doubles. Venus is the older of the sisters, and both of them are coached by their father Richard Williams.

Venus Williams turned pro in 1994 and won her first Grand Slam Singles title in 2000 when she defeated Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon. Venus has won Wimbledon five times in singles. The first win was in 2000, then again in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Serena turned pro in 1995 and won her first Grand Slam Singles title in 1999 when she won the French Open and the U.S Open. Serena has won the Australian Open three times, the French Open once, Wimbledon three times and the U.S Open once. Serena was once ranked number one in the female tennis world, but she was recently beat out by Dinara Safina. Serena has spent a total of 57 weeks at number one, and Venus has been there for 11 weeks.

Venus and Serena have had success in doubles as well as singles. Together, the Williams sisters have won eight Grand Slam titles together. They won the French Open in 1999 and also the U.S Open during the same year. The sisters won Wimbledon a total of three times. These wins came in 2000, 2002 and in 2008. The sisters have also won the Australian Open three times in 2001, 2003 and 2009.

In the world of men’s professional tennis, there is no one more successful in the last decade as Rafael Nadal. Nadal is currently ranked number 1 in the world, since he took it over from rival Roger Federer in August of 2008. Over his career, Nadal has had an ongoing rivalry with Federer and had defeated him in many major tournaments. It all began when Nadal was born in his home country of Spain to parents Sebastian Nadal and Ana Maria Parera. Nadal was an all around athlete and was forced to choose his career path between tennis and football, and fortunately he chose tennis.

Nadal entered the professional tennis world in 2001 and didn’t win his first Grand Slam Singles Final until 2005. In total, Nadal has won 27 Major Singles Titles and 6 Grand Slam Singles Titles. Nadal has had great success at the French Open. Nadal won his first French Open in 2005 when he defeated Mariano Puerto and won it again in 2006, 2007 and 2008 all against his rival Roger Federer. Nadal won his first Wimbledon title in 2008 when he again defeated Federer at his first Australian Open in 2009, once again beating Federer. Nadal has lost to Federer at Wimbledon Twice, in 2006 and in 2007.

Nadal continues to dominate the game of professional tennis and still resides in Spain. In his career, Nadal has won over 23 million dollars and also has an Olympic gold medal. Nadal won his gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics.