When she leans over to line up a shot, she oozes style. Her long black hair floats over the table and you're entranced by her grace and beauty. But when she gets ready to strike the cueball, her demeanour takes on a whole new face. Her eyebrows arches menacingly and on breaking the rack, you'd better get out of the way because she drives the cueball with such ferocity, she jumps a clear foot off the ground.

The glamorous Lee earned her nickname because of her tenacious ability to devour opponents and her tendency to wear only black during competition. But Lee is no villain.

Far from it. She's one of the friendliest and most courteous athletes you'll ever meet. She was recently in town to visit her sister, Doris, a Hong Kong resident who is married to Chinese University professor Sidney Cheung.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the 32-year-old Lee, who is married to top-ranked men's pool player George Breedlove, known as the 'Flamethrower', is arguably the most well-known pool player in the world.

Just two years after turning pro in 1993, she was the number one ranked player on the Women's Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) Tour. She has appeared in talk shows, including the Letterman show, Regis and Kelly and Craig Kilborn and has earned a film credit in the Garry Marshall-directed Disney movie, The Other Sister, starring Oscar winner Diane Keaton. She also co-wrote the aptly named, The Black Widow Guide To Killer Pool.

To top it off, she was voted third sexiest female athlete on the planet by ESPN voters, coming behind tennis player Anna Kournikova and track and field star Marion Jones.

Lee, a first generation Korean-American, is one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet and, although the former world number one is as well-known for her flamboyant style as her incredible precision and calculated play, she is without doubt the most competitive player in the sport.

However, her competitiveness was not an inborn quality, but one that was brought on by years of sacrifice and hardship. For Lee had to overcome tremendous physical pain to become the success she is today.

At age 12, she suffered a severe physical setback due to scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. She has suffered neck and shoulder injuries and over the course of the past 20 years has had eight major operations, including one that required implanting a steel rod in her spine. But that didn't stop Lee from believing that she would one day become the greatest women's pool player.

'I had it when I was 12. Until then, I was quite shy,' recalls Lee of the horror of discovering that she had contracted the debilitating disease.

'It was not easy for my mom [Sonja] to see my body. Since then, they have discovered that my mom and my sister have about 10-degree curvatures. I had over 55 [degrees] on both curves. It was hard for me because, you know, I was starting to like boys,' she laughs.

'When you're 12 or 13, your body starts to change a bit. Who wants a big scar down her back? I had a crush on this guy who didn't know I existed!'

Years later, she had the steel rods removed and replaced by plates on her lower back, but physical pain has always been part of her life.

'Eventually, I herniated a disc in my neck and I had shoulder surgery because my rotator cuff was grinding together. I am an Asian bionic woman,' she jokes.

'But what doesn't kill you, strengthens you because each time you survive it, you're convinced you can survive. It's like, 'wow, I can handle it' and it gives you this force or belief in yourself. 'Hey, if I can do that, this is going to be a piece of cake!' It does strengthen you because it forces you to expand your limits.'

Currently ranked number three in the world - rival Allison Fisher is number one - Lee was first attracted to pool at age 15. It was a visit to a local pool hall in downtown New York that would change her life forever.

Though she excelled at school and won a place at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, she has always had a rebellious streak and one day cut class with friends and ended up in a pool hall.

'At first, it didn't strike me as anything different from going bowling. I had a boyfriend, we hung out. When I was 18, I spent a lot of time in the the pool room. When I first went, it was out of curiosity,' says Lee.

'There was a pool rage all over New York. I heard about this one club and I went in and all the way down in the corner of the room, there was this one man who was playing so amazingly,' she says of her encounter with pool legend Johnny Ervolino.

'That was the beginning. People are attracted to greatness. People are attracted to people with great skill. I have had a lot of physical disability and this was something I thought I could be competitive at,' says the American, who lives in Indianapolis and is involved in a number of charities including the Jeanette Lee Foundation, Make A Wish Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs, Children's Hospital Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis, and Aids Project Los Angeles.

A fondness for the game soon became an obsession for Lee, who would spend countless hours in the pool halls, practising, learning from the masters and trying to improve her game any which way she knew how. The sport took up almost all her time - almost to the point of absurdity.

Playing 30 hours straight was not uncommon for Lee while growing up in Brooklyn. One night, she had to be carried away by her friends after a marathon 37-hour session.

'That was when I was first playing,' says Lee of her early obsession with the sport. 'It was pretty common that I was playing 30-odd hours straight. It was not because you have the intention of playing that long but because you lose track of time because you're so obsessed with what you're doing.

'It's like ,'oh my gosh, I am getting it and I can't stop now because if I stop, I will forget'. You get all wrapped up in it but some point your body just breaks down.

'I was completely obsessed with the game to the point of sickness. I was always playing pool. My friends had to come to the pool room if they wanted to see Jeanette. I couldn't say I was very healthy because all I drank and ate was coffee and hotdogs from the front counter of the pool room!

'My mum, when she wanted to see me, she had to come to the pool room. It was scary for her because her daughter is 18 and she is in the pool room at odd hours of the night. Once I started to win championships and trophies, she was a lot more supportive. She knew I needed to practise a lot in order to do all that and that I was not fooling around and wasting my time.

'I didn't think about whether or not this was going to be a career. I just knew this was what I wanted to do and believe I could be the best. You could feel the competition wasn't that great [at the time].'

She had entered a man's domain, perfecting her game as she ate, lived and slept pool.

'I think a lot of it is really paying attention to what will happen on the pool table. As an example, if you were to start playing pool and you would be making this bridge,' she says, bridging her hand. 'You may not get it right. If you start to play you might feel a bit clumsy for a while. But for me, I would get my hand exactly like this [she demonstrates] and wouldn't let go of it. I would go to bed like this. I would tape it like this. I would practise in the subway. I would be driving like this.

'I took it at such an extreme level. It was my approach to things. If I was going to play golf, I would look at a golfer and try to be exactly like him. I feel there's these people they get up to a pool table and they are just hacking away with no real effort.

'Then there's regular people playing on the next table and they look pretty good. Why would you not try to imitate his stroke?'

Lee's fascination with the game led her to victory in the WPBA National Championship in 1994, vaulting her to the number one ranking. The same year she was WPBA Player of the Year and, four years later, WPBA Sportsperson of the Year. She was never outside the world's top four between 1994 and 1998. Her biggest triumph though was the gold medal she won at the World Games in Akita, Japan in 2001.

As an amateur, Lee was never really a hustler but neither would she refuse a four-ball handicap when it was offered by sceptical male players. She soon got into the action and was pocketing huge sums of money. One night, she took home US$90,000 after a 23-hour session.

'The pool room I was playing at, people were betting regularly. The better you are or the more you know, the bigger the stakes. For me hustling is tricking. I never felt I was tricking.

'[My opponents] never waived out the impact of the mental side of a women. Once he's in it, and everybody watching and he can see that I can play, he puts so much pressure on himself and he might say 'oh my God, what if I lose to this girl?' He is feeling that heat but I won't be feeling it because I had nothing to lose.'

Asked how she got the nickname the Black Widow, Lee says Howard Beach Billiard Club owner Gabe Vigorito called her that when she was first starting out as a 22-year-old.

'It was not an intentional nickname. One year after I was playing there in the club, we were reminiscing early in the morning at closing time. We were just friends and we were talking about our first impressions.

'Gabe said, 'Oh, I remember when you first came in. You were wearing all black and you came and you were so cute and seemed so sweet and when you racked up all the balls your whole demeanour changed, your eyes and everything. The next thing you know you were knocking all the balls in. You reminded me of a black widow.

'Everybody was laughing. I said 'what are you talking about?' He said, 'spiders, you know, lure their opponents and then they eat them alive. Because you got all these guys and they think you're sweet and sexy and then you get them on the table and you whup them'.

'It was really just a joke. Somehow it really stuck because the image really suits my pool.

'I am all right with it now. I was not all right with it during that time. It is one thing that your friends call you that but for everyone else to think that? I didn't really look friendly in the table not that I was trying to look unfriendly. Have you seen me play? I don't look very friendly. The nickname doesn't help, but somehow the fans love it.

'The women find it so empowering, the men find it sexy, the kids think I am a superhero. They love it, so it's cool.'

She talks about her biggest success in winning gold for the US at the World Games in 2001, which she describes as a 'moving and emotional experience'.

'It was the first time I was doing something bigger and greater. It was a much bigger stage. Also it was very emotional because my father, who has been supportive but never involved in my career, wanted me to win the gold medal. He wants me to win the gold medal at the Olympics and keeps asking me when it is going to be an Olympic sport.

'It was not a demonstration sport [at the World Games] but a medal sport and it was under the patronage of the IOC [International Olympic Committee]. My father was bent on me winning and finally I represented America and won the gold medal.

'It was amazing after all these years that I was able to call up my father and say 'guess what? We won the gold medal.'

'He said, 'Finally Korea got a gold medal' and I said, 'Dad, you know it's for America!' It was very emotional. Certainly the only time I felt like crying.'

'I will be defending my gold medal [in Duisburg, Germany] next year.'

Since her marriage to Breedlove, which has lasted eight years, Lee's game has slipped.

She is no longer practising 10 hours a day. It is now down to six as family life takes precedence over the game she was once hooked on.

But Lee vows to return to the top again.

'Being number one again is very important to me. I really thought that it wouldn't be. I kind of resorted to accepting the fact I wasn't number one anymore and I cared about having a family more.

'Actually, I had a couple of very bad tournaments last year. That was when I realised that it was not acceptable and that I am not resorting to that. I booked less exhibitions and began working more on my game and took on a new coach [Robert Carmen] and just putting in the time as I did before.

'The time I put in was just enough for me to maintain and not improve. If I want to dominate these women, I can't do it with the game I have now. Domination will require me to step to a level they have not seen.'

Indeed, Lee has overcome so many adversaries in her life that one is loathe to doubt that she will eventually return to the top.

You go out there and show them, Jeanette.

'That's what I plan to do.'

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