Roger Davis Masters, born June 8, 1933, studied at Harvard (A.B. 1955, Summa cum Laude), served in the U.S. Army (1955-57) and completed his M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1961) at the University of Chicago. After teaching at Yale (1961-1967), he has been on the faculty at Dartmouth College (1967 to present) as well as Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris (1969-1971). He is currently the Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus and Research Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth.

Roger Masters has made deep and wide-ranging contributions in social science. The central concern of his career has been how biological circumstances influence individual behavior and social outcomes.

Masters began his career in political philosophy as a student of Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago. His dissertation and subsequent book (Masters 1968) helped demonstrate the importance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in modern thought. He translated and edited influential new editions of Rousseau’s works (Masters 1964a, 1978), and later co-edited the only complete English edition of his Collected Writings (Masters and Kelly 1990). The role of natural science in early political thought is also addressed in books on Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci (Masters 1996, 1998).

Andre Kirk Agassi ( /ˈɑːndreɪ ˈæɡəsi/; born April 29, 1970) is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game. Described by the BBC upon his retirement as "perhaps the biggest worldwide star in the sport's history", Agassi's performances, along with his unorthodox apparel and attitude, have seen him cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game, and credited for helping revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s.

In singles tennis, Agassi is an eight-time Grand Slam champion who competed in 15 Grand Slam finals, and an Olympic gold medalist. A multi-surface specialist, he is the first of two male players to have achieved a singles Career Golden Slam, and one of four to have achieved a singles Career Grand Slam in the Open Era (one of seven in history). He was the first male player to win all four Grand Slams on three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass), and is the last American male to win the French Open (1999) and the Australian Open (2003). Agassi also won 17 ATP Masters Series titles, the 1990 ATP Tour World Championships, and was part of a winning Davis Cup team in 1990 and 1992. He is the only male singles player in history to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympic gold medal and the ATP Tour World Championships: a distinction dubbed as a "Career Super Slam" by Sports Illustrated.

Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera (Catalan: [rəˈfɛɫ nəˈðaɫ pəˈɾeɾə]; Spanish: [rafaˈel naˈðal paˈɾeɾa]) (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. As of 28 May 2012 (2012 -05-28)^[update], he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time; his success on clay has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay", and has prompted many experts to regard him as the greatest clay court player of all time.

Nadal has won ten Grand Slam singles titles, including a record six French Open titles (tied with Bjorn Borg), the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, a record 21 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, and also was part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. He completed the Career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 US Open, being the seventh player in history, and the youngest in the open era, to achieve it. He is the second male player to complete the Career Golden Slam (winner of the four grand slams and the Olympic Gold medal) after only Andre Agassi.

Roger Federer (German pronunciation: [ˈfeːdəʁɐ]) (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP No. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks from 2 February 2004 to 18 August 2008. Federer has occupied the #1 ranking for 285 overall weeks, one week short of the record 286 weeks held by Pete Sampras. As of 28 May 2012, he is ranked World No. 3. Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard courts). He is the only male player in tennis history to have reached the title match of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times and also the final at each of the nine ATP Masters 1000 Tournaments. Many sports analysts, tennis critics, and former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.

Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 23 career Grand Slam tournament finals, including a men's record ten in a row, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, the lone exception being the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2012 Australian Open, he reached a record 31st consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. During the course of his run at the 2012 French Open in Roland Garros, Federer eclipsed Jimmy Connors long standing record of 233 match wins in Grand Slam tournaments when he defeated Adrian Ungur in a second round match.

David Pablo Nalbandian (born January 1, 1982) is an Argentine professional tennis player and former world no. 3. He was runner-up at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and the winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.

David Nalbandian was born in the small city of Unquillo in Córdoba Province, Argentina. His mother is of Italian descent and his father is of Armenian descent. He turned a professional tennis player at the age of 18.

He turned professional in 2000. In 2001, he finished in the ATP top 50 for the first time. He finished 2002 as the no. 1 Argentine and South American for the first time in his career, winning two ATP titles and reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

Nalbanian was not able to return to the Wimbledon final in 2003, as he was knocked out in the round of 16 by hometown favourite Tim Henman. He did however make an impressive run at the U.S. Open, taking out both of the Wimbledon finalists 20th seed Mark Philippoussis, and the second seed Roger Federer along the way to a semifinal matchup with Andy Roddick. It was the second time in less than a month that he had met Roddick in a high-stakes match, having lost to him in the final of the Rogers Cup a few weeks earlier. Nalbandian started strongly, taking a two sets to love lead, and held a match point in the third-set tiebreak. There was a little bit of controversy during the match, when a fan yelled "out" at 7–7 in the tiebreak, causing Nalbandian to mishit his following shot when he thought the linesman was the one who called it. Roddick took the point and eventually prevailed in the tiebreak. Ultimately, he was unable to finish the match off and eventually lost 6–7, 3–6, 7–6, 6–1, 6–3. He finished 2003 ranked #8 in the world.