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What: TennisMatch magazine.

Price: $2.95.

Competition is good . . . off the court too.

For years, Tennis magazine has ruled the industry with a grip about as formidable as Pete Sampras’ hold on No. 1. But with a recent redesign and a shift in content, a pledge for additional stories about the athletes, TennisMatch is worthy of examination.

The results, judging from the December/January issue, are promising.

Small bits of information are scattered throughout the magazine. There is a short question-and-answer session with Petr (scissor-

kicking) Korda, who went airborne after upsetting Sampras at the U.S. Open.

Said Korda: “Everyone thinks I am jumping around like a horse, but actually I’m very quiet off the tennis court. I stand with both feet on the ground.”

There are Web site addresses for 21 players, including Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Martina Hingis and Boris Becker. Carlos Moya’s Web site is bilingual--available in English and Catalan.

TennisMatch does deliver on its promise to provide more features about players. The December/January issue focuses upon those recently in the news--Venus Williams, Irina Spirlea and Rafter.

Yet the articles are rather short. The highly regarded Pat Jordan tackles the relationship between Venus Williams and her father, Richard, and the story ends just when Jordan is getting going.

Jordan seems to be able to get anyone to say anything--the prime example being his Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine story about Whitey Herzog a few years ago, featuring Herzog making several, well, earthy remarks about his then-Angel bosses.

Though his interview with Richard Williams was from a few years ago, the quotes were provocative. Now, if Jordan had talked to Williams after the U.S. Open, that might have been an interesting conversation.