Vincent Spadea

Vince Spadea is No. 25 in the world and is 4-0 against Top 10 players this year. Clive Brunskill/Allsport

At 24 years old -- used to be that qualified you for early retirement on the ATP Tour -- Vince Spadea knows it's now or never.

Or maybe not.

All Spadea really knows is he's considered a Tour veteran, with six long years in the trenches, and after years of steadily climbing in the rankings, he finally is pushing the Top 20.

He's ranked as high as he ever has been, No. 25 in the world. His game is better than ever. He is 4-0 against top 10 players this year and seems poised for a breakthrough.

He still hasn't won a tournament, true enough.

But he's made a run in several of them.

"If my career isn't what other people thought it would be ... you start thinking like that, you won't know what to do next. That's when people float," Spadea said in April. "I look at it as being one of the few [top Americans] rather than I haven't won Wimbledon three times yet."

Spadea has made more than $1.5 million in his career, almost $200,000 of that this year. But he's often forgotten when the talk turns to young Americans -- forgotten in favor of even younger Americans like Justin Gimelstob and Jan-Michael Gambill. Spadea ranks higher than either of those guys.

He keeps churning along.

"You know what -- now I've climbed this far, now I have another challenge," he said, "and people will start discussing that."

Like many young players, Spadea has trouble with his consistency. But he has improved. His return game, especially, has gotten to the point where he's won 33 percent of his return games, third on the Tour.

That improvement has helped him jump in the rankings. His big boost came at the Australian Open, where he reached the quarterfinals after a win over Agassi. He also beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the world's current No. 1 and the top seed at the French Open, at Key Biscayne. His other wins over top 10 players came against Karol Kucera in Monte Carlo and Mark Philippoussis in Rome.

That's not to say there haven't been slips along the way. In the AT&T Challenge in Atlanta in April, Spadea crashed out in a first-round loss to Max Mirnyl of Russia, ranked 166th in the world at the time.

It was a loss that could have devastated him -- in his younger days.

"Before, it would be like 'My God, what do I do now?' But you have to look at it like, first nobody plays every week, and nobody does well every week. If you get a guy who wins once every three weeks, once a month, once every other month -- he's moving at an extremely fast pace," Spadea said.

"When you consider it in black and white ... you gotta give a little bit of room, a little bit of credit."

Spadea is a baseliner whose style has been likened to Agassi. The slow clay courts at the French Open should play right into his game.

Jan-Michael Gambill

Only age 21, Gambill has already defeated Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras this year. Clive Brunskill/Allsport

Gambill is a trip. If he weren't so ridiculously handsome -- the blond hair, the blue eyes, the squared jaw, the tan, the 6-foot-3 frame, all that stuff -- he'd be downright quirky.

The man plays a two-fisted forehand, one of only three players in the Top 100 at the end of 1998 to go two-handed from both sides. He's a baseliner in a serve-and-volleyers body, an ATP superstar still waiting to get discovered.

He's only 21, and still lives with his folks in Spokane, Wash. He's a big-time car collector, with 10 Jaguars stashed in a converted garage at his parents' house.

After all, he saves a little money on rent.

Gambill, named after B-movie actor Jan-Michael Vincent, also has the confidence. Loads of it, an essential ingredient as he starts his climb up the world rankings.

"I have the game," he said after a loss to rival Justin Gimelstob in April. "I can beat anybody in the world."

Unlike Gimelstob and Spadea, Gambill has won a tournament title. It was the Scottsdale stop earlier this year, after Andre Agassi defaulted to him in the semifinals and he nipped Pete Sampras in three sets after losing the first.

His first breakthrough came last year at Indian Wells when he beat Agassi in the quarterfinals.

"It was a huge boost. That was very important," said Gambill, currently ranked No. 49. "Record-wise, confidence-wise, it was great. You have to look at [players like Agassi] and find out what they do to perform so well. It's because they're so intense."

Gambill has a good serve -- he ranks 13th on the Tour in aces -- and has all the ground strokes needed to win, even if the two-handed style limits his reach somewhat. If he can solve the slower rhythm and higher bounces on the clay at Roland Garros, he may be an American to watch.

Justin Gimelstob

Gimelstob: "Obviously, it's a situation I've never been in. And it's not my best surface. But I have the ability to do well on it." Brian Bahr/Allsport

Gimelstob thinks this is a heck of a rivalry he has going with Gambill, even if Gambill tries to downplay it.

The 22-year-old Gimelstob and his 21-year-old fellow American have slugged it out since juniors tennis days. They are as opposite as a big, dark-headed kid from Jersey (that's Gimelstob) and a big blonde from the West Coast can be.

What they have in common is tennis -- though even there, they differ. Gimelstob is the serve-and-volleyer to Gambill's baseliner.

Still, these two players may be playing the best of any of the young Americans today and certainly better than anyone younger than Spadea.

"He took off [in the rankings] last year when I was injured, and that really motivated me," Gimelstob said of Gambill. "He's been playing really well. He's kind of taken the high road a little quicker than I did, with my injury and all."

Gimelstob owned Gambill as a junior, and won his first match against him as a pro earlier this year in San Jose. He was a set and a break up on him in Scottsdale too, before he crumbled and lost to Gambill in three sets.

"I took that really hard," Gimelstob said.

Gimelstob rebounded in their last meeting, in Atlanta, sweeping aside Gambill in straight sets in a match that lasted barely over an hour.

The 6-foot-5 Gimelstob, now No. 70 in the world in his third year on Tour, has yet to win a tournament. But in a wide-open year, he figures he's not that far away from challenging the best.

Maybe even in Paris.

"It's my first time in the main draw [in a Slam]. I'm going to be well-rested, I'm going to be fit," he said. "Obviously, it's a situation I've never been in. And it's not my best surface. But I have the ability to do well on it. I'm really looking forward to it."

None of these young Americans has had the early success that a Chang or Courier or Agassi or Sampras has had in Grand Slams. Chang, remember, won the French at 17 years old in 1989. Courier has won two French Opens and two Australian Opens.

Agassi has won three Slams, with only the French eluding him. And Sampras has 11 Slams (the French isn't one of them, however).

"I think we've shown a lot of progress. It's maybe not as quick as people might like," Gimelstob said. "But they have to realize that [Sampras and Agassi and others] are probably the exception to the norm. I think it's harder now with the depth. It looks like they were super-talented, and maybe they were.

"Maybe we're just late bloomers."