Monday, August 16, 1999
Sampras so good it hurts
Hard serves defeat, injure Rafter in final
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Pete Sampras cracks a smile, as Patrick Rafter checks out his trophy.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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MASON — The question has been posed on several occasions: What can an opponent do when Pete Sampras is playing his best tennis?
The answer is clear.
Nothing.
Sampras was too good for Patrick Rafter in Sunday's Great American Insurance ATP Championship final and too good for the field all week.
He captured his third ATP title with a 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 victory and earned his Waterford Crystal bowl and $361,000 check by defeating the No.4 (Rafter), No.3 (Andre Agassi) and No.13 (Richard Krajicek) players in the world consecutively.
Rafter had defeated Sampras three straight times. Krajicek had a four-match winning streak going against Sampras.
Both demons are gone.
Sampras did not drop a set in five matches. He has won 22 straight matches — the second-best winning streak of his career — and the last four tournaments in which he has competed.
Patrick Rafter reacts to a loss in the tiebreaker.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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When the new ATP Tour rankings come out today, he will be No.1 for a record 273rd week in his career.
“I'm just riding the wave, and I hope that wave doesn't crash anytime soon,” Sampras said. “I'm playing good, consis tent tennis. This is probably one of my better weeks on Tour (this year).”
The rematch of last year's ATP Championship final — won in 1998 by Rafter — was essentially decided by a first-set tiebreaker.
Games were even, 6-6. Each player held serve. Points were
quick; there were no true rallies. Sampras had scored seven points with Rafter serving. Rafter scored just four on Sampras's serve.
At 3-2 in the tiebreaker, Sampras ripped a 128 mph serve that broke through the strings of Rafter's racket. “I just thought, that's pretty indicative of the way he's serving,” Rafter said later.
Sampras won the point on his next serve, then went ahead 5-2 on a 133 mph ace up the middle. Rafter battled back with three straight points.
At 7-7, Rafter couldn't handle a 131 mph serve. On the next point, he hit a forehand volley wide.
“Probably went for the corner a little bit too much,” he said.
Halfway through the tiebreaker, Rafter's right shoulder started acting up. He has been suffering from tendinitis but had been feeling fine all week.
Pete Sampras hits a volley.
(AP photo)
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Sampras took a 1-0 lead in the second set, then broke Rafter's serve — the first time all week that had happened — to go up 2-0. With Sampras leading 3-2, ATP Tour trainer Doug Spreen, a Cincinnati native, spent the changeover massaging and stretching Rafter's shoulder. That went on during the next changeover, as well.
“I think the first game (of the second set), I felt it a couple times,” Rafter said. “He was serving hard. I think I jarred it trying to return his serve.”
No excuses, mate. Rafter wanted that clear. Sampras was the better player Sunday.
“I felt intimidated on his serve the whole time,” Rafter said.
Sampras was serving regularly in the 120s. He had 12 aces to Rafter's four. He got 67 percent of his serves in and won 80 percent of those points.
“I felt I was hitting big, and I was hitting close to the line,” Sampras said. “... You just get into a rhythm, and my rhythm is there at the moment. The challenge is just trying to maintain it for the next couple of weeks.”
The U.S. Open is his next main target. That starts Aug.30. A victory at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., would give Sampras a 13th Grand Slam title. For now, he shares the record with Roy Emerson at 12. Sampras will be the top seed at the Open.
He did join some elite company with Sunday's victory. Sampras won his 60th ATP Tour title and is just the sixth player to do so (Jimmy Connors 109, Ivan Lendl 94, John McEnroe 77, Bjorn Borg 62, Guillermo Villas 62).
“I'd rather go to the Open playing well and winning tournaments than not,” Sampras said. “Overconfidence isn't really a worry.”
When Sunday's ATP final ended, Sampras and Rafter shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at the net. They again Sunday insisted their relationship is in good standing, a year after Rafter felt Sampras stole his thunder by disputing his match-winning ace.
“He's a great guy,” Sampras said. “There are no mind games out there with Pat. He's a true professional on and off the court. And I just told him that.”
Said Rafter: “It was a good-spirited match. There were no bad feelings out there.”
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