A BACKGROUND LOOK AT THE ROUNDTABLE

In the article at right, Kim Shippey leads three journalists in a roundtable discussion about Wimbledon. All of them are veteran observers of the sports scene:

R.A.J. (Bob) Hewitt beganplaying at Wimbledon in1959 and has won seven doubles' titles (five men's and two mixed). He was born in Australia, played Davis Cup for South Africa, and is now an international coach and television broadcaster.

Alison Muscatine is a tennis writer for the Washington Post. She is a political correspondent turned editor turned sportswriter.

Rex Bellamy covered the international tennis circuit for The Times of London from 1960 to 1989, and he still writes on aspects of Wimbledon for The Times. His book on 30 years of great tennis champions, "Love Thirty" (Simon and Schuster), is in its third edition in two years.