By Nick McCarvel

New York—About two decades ago, two kids with loads of potential hit the courts of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in hopes of getting to the next level. They grinded it out on too-hot courts, along with dozens of other hopefuls, for most of the day, every day. One was a native Floridian with a outgoing American and no lack of confidence. The other was a quiet Eastern European who let her racquet do the talking, hitting two-handed off each side.

It was she who sent winners flying past her bigger, more powerful fellow student in one match-up he'd never forget.

"This is payback!" Jim Courier hollered to Monica Seles on Monday as he secured a beautiful winner that sailed across a real grass court set in the concrete jungle of Manhattan.

The setting was Wimbledon at Rockefeller Center an event, put on by HSBC, that brings a myriad of Wimbledon-inspired activities to the city that hosts the U.S. Open.

"What we're trying to do is bring a little of Wimbledon to New York and we want people to have a good time this week," said Kevin Martin, senior executive vice president of HSBC Bank USA.

Commuters and tourists alike seemed surprised to see a grass court at Rockefeller Center, let alone the two former Grand Slam champions hitting on it. The two traded groundstrokes while Tennis Channel's Brett Haber chatted them up.

The action between Seles and Courier kicked off a week of Wimbledon at Rockefeller, featuring a large screen showing live action from the All England Club, Wii tennis, instructional sessions and free racquet stringing by Prince, strawberries and cream, and period-dressed Wimbledon players.

Monica Seles turns novelist
"I'm going to be starting to write a novel for the first time in my life," Seles told HelloTennis.com. "It took me a long time to get the treatment done, which took up a lot of my day-to-day time. I'm working with my friend James on the novel, he's my partner in this. It's going to be really, really fun. It's in the works. We just signed with Bloomsbury, who's going to be the publisher. We have a tennis character in there because of my love for the sport. But we have baseball, football, soccer and other sports involved, as well."

She indulges her enjoyment for writing, and reserves her court time for kids. "I do a lot of these little kids clinics. I enjoy working with little kids who are just getting into the sport," Seles explained. "Nothing older than that. I really enjoy the smaller clinics when I do them. I have parents and friends of friends — I don't know how they get to me! — or through an agent [asking to work with their kids] and I'm always very happy to do that. Any time I can help because I've done that, I've lived that, I'm happy to."

Jim Courier remains close to competition
The newly-appointed Davis Cup captain has his first big test when his boys host Spain in Austin, Texas, July 8 to 10.

"I'm not going to Wimbledon, but I went to Queen's Club tournament for three days and I got to see the guys play on the grass there," Courier said. "I'm disappointed that Sam Querrey has an elbow injury that he had to have surgically repaired and he won't be an option for us. We have five good options, though. We have Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, John Isner and Bob and Mike Bryan. We'll have four of those five players on the court ready to do battle with the Spaniards."

A fast — and loud — court will help the American's chances, the new captain said.

"We'll play on a fast indoor court that will meet ITF specifications and it's going to be high energy and high passion. This is probably the only time that Roddick is going to get to play a real Davis Cup match at home."

Courier's other big tennis project, the Champions Series, makes 12 tour stops.

"From September 22 to October 22 is the Champions Series tennis tour in which (Bjorn) Borg, Mac (John McEnroe), (Michael) Chang, (Mats) Wilander, (Andre) Agassi, (Pete) Sampras and myself will all be playing in these one-night tournaments," Courier said. "I saw that there was an opportunity...within a lot of great markets like Boston and Chicago and Seattle that didn't have a tennis tournament. They once had a pro tennis tournament, but they had gone overseas or fallen off the calendar. I thought there was a real under-served tennis fan base there and a real opportunity...for Champions Series tennis."

HSBC extends reach to U.S.
Prize money at The Championships, Wimbledon, is being handled by HSBC, the tourney's official banking partner since 2007. With nearly 500 bank branches in the U.S. serving 4 million customers, the company is leveraging its Wimbledon partnership to American tennis fans.

"We have an involvement with [Courier's] Champions Series in North America and for 2011, that's where we're at. Globally, we continue to support golf and we support tennis via this event here in New York."

"We just want people to have fun," said Martin, admitting he'd like to get on the tennis court a bit more himself.

No wonder. As Haber exclaimed, "This is the real stuff!"