The heat's been on in Indian Wells these past few days, with the hottest action taking place betwen has been between former greats, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, who were on opposite sides of the net in a Hit 4 Haiti charity match alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

All was fine until Pete mimicked Andre's pre-point 'shuffle', and Andre responded by emptying his pockets and inferring this was a familiar refrain for Pete.  Sampras, who was serving, then served a thunderbolt  which actually managed to glance Andre on the full even though Andre was standing at the baseline and not receiving serve!  It was a very uncomfortable moment between the two greats, and one suspects Pete has not forgotten the ordinary treatment he received in Andre's biography, Open, which came out late last year.

The Andre Agassi I knew was a private individual.  He kept to himself and his coach Brad Gilbert, forever 'chilling out' next to his perennial reserved locker at the Australian Open, and never seeming to mix with the other guys.  He always arrived groomed and ready to play and left straight after his media commitments.  The other oddity is that his entourage refused to use the reserved premium box seats.  It was imperative that they be seated in the media seats, of all places, but the quirky request was that there has to be at least one extra seat reserved for them.  This was very important, and I never found out if it was superstition, or whether they didn't want someone seated beside them!

At Indian Wells, it was however a treat to see Federer, Nadal, Agassi and Sampras on the same court - two pretty big rivalries right there!  On to the main draw of the men's, it's still on track for a possible Federer v Andy Murray semi, with second-seed Novak Djokovic drawn to meet third-seed Nadal in the other half.

Good news for Australia is the mini-renaissance of Alicia Molik. Her third round victory over unlikely opponent Elena Baltacha of Great Britain saw her storm back into the top 100, the all-important benchmark to gain direct entry into this year's Grand Slams.  Now Alicia has this status back, she heads into "bonus" territory, even if a top 10 ranking as once held is out of reach.

Speaking of which, Sam Stosur has pretty much sealed  a top 10 ranking. Her victory in her round of 16 match with Vera Zvonerova pretty much sealed the deal.  Li Na, ranked 10, lost in the first round, Pennetta ranked 12 and Sharapova, ranked 13, are already out, so Zvonerova at 14 perhaps was the only realistic threat to Sam, currently 11. Yet Zvonerova won this event last year (Sam lost in the second round), and the way the rankings work within a sliding 12 month calendar, your result merely replaces last year's at the same event if they are scheduled in the same week.

So, whichever way you look at it, only a freak tournament win from a lower ranked player can stop Sam, and that's highly unlikely. This will be a notable achievement for the 25-year-old Queenslander, who undoubtedly boasts the best second serve in women's tennis, a nasty 'kicker' which is the envy of many men on the tour.