• The game was still played with wooden rackets?

• Bjorn Borg and Pat Rafter hadn’t retired so early?

• Tiger played tennis and Michael Jordan had quit the NBA to try his hand on the ATP Tour?

• Federer had a real rival?

• McEnroe had a touch of Lendl’s work ethic?

• Lendl had a touch of Connors’ charisma?

• Connors had a touch of Chang’s manners?

• Roddick had a touch of McEnroe’s touch?

• Tennis had a schedule, a scoring system and rankings that were not created by a drunk chump in a West Side bar at three in the morning?

• There was Monday Night Tennis on TV?

• Tennis had a deep cadre of charismatic broadcasters?

• Clay courts were as common in California as they are in Spain?

• Doubles were a big deal and the top players (“Wow, what an idea”) actually played the game?

• Tennis had a third Williams sister?

• We could see Federer play Sampras and Navratilova face Graf at each other’s peak?

• Referees and tournament directors weren’t so spineless and actually had booted McEnroe out of a bunch of tournaments when he was a jerk?

• Grunting was banned?

• The Davis Cup was played every other year (like the Ryder Cup) over a two-week period (and a couple of American whizzes named Connors and Chang had a burning desire to win the thing)?

• Kramer, Budge, Tilden and Gonzalez played in this era?

• Just 17 percent of Billie Jean King’s upbeat, fan-friendly, reforms had been put in place?

• Seles hadn’t been robbed of her prime by a crazed coward?

• Sharapova didn’t have super-model looks?

• Kournikova had become a gymnast and thereby wasn’t destined to become the inspiration/sparkplug to a generation of young Russian girls?

• Roland Garros and Wimbledon weren’t back to back within two weeks?

• Wimbledon’s strawberries & cream were as good as they’re cracked up to be?

• The pride of Oxford, Tim Henman, won Wimbledon?

• Graf had Justine Henin-Hardenne’s backhand (and Justine had Steffi’s forehand)?

• Tennis had a three-point line and players got a scoring bonus when they hit winners from far off the court?

• Arthur Ashe and Vitas Gerulaitis were still alive?

• Agassi had a killer volley?

• Tennis had gotten it together enough to sustain the sizzle of the tennis boom of the ‘70s?

• Tennis wasn’t Balkanized into a dizzying/dysfunctional array of alphabet soup, turf-conscience organizations (ATP, WTA, USTA, ITF, USPTA, PTR, ITA, etc)?

• Each USTA president had more than a ridiculously brief (“Here’s my trophy accomplishment, now I gotta go and sit in the Royal Box”) two year tenure?

• Tennis had a commissioner with the gravitas of Paul Tagliabue and the savvy of David Stern [think Arlen Kantarian]?

• There was electronic scoring and close line calls were immediately replayed on in-stadium screens?

• Tennis’ vast new stadiums were based more on fan-friendly intimacy than vain grandeur and look-at-me luxury suites crowded with Trump wannabes?

• There weren’t so many bad dads (Jim Pierce, Damir Dokic, Peter Graf, Simon Linetskaya, etc)?

• The mid-careers of Hingis and Capriati weren’t marred by serious (“How come you’re squandering all that talent?”) walkabouts?

• World TeamTennis was so big and so international that Monday morning water cooler chatter was about the Moscow vs. Milwaukee or Barcelona vs. Bombay matches.

• Tennis had a hot-spit senior circuit, crackling with character?

• Tennis’ clown-prince, Ilie Nastase, succeeded in his campaign to become mayor of Bucharest?

• College tennis was still a major feed-in system for the pros?

• Roddick had a flowing backhand, cat-like quickness and had NOT won a Grand Slam so early?

• Safin and Serena (despite all her triumphs) really applied their talent?

• More gay players had the mature, open nonchalance of Amelie Mauresmo and Rennae Stubbs (and nobody gave a hoot)?

• Venus was like Althea Gibson: a net-rushing, serve and volleyer?

• Federer was American?