Posted on: September 07th, 2002
Playing Like a Star, Sampras Reaches Final
- petepageSource Christopher Clarey, New York Times
They have played 33 times before, and each time they meet at this advanced stage of their careers, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi can never sure if it there will be another time.
But if the match they play this afternoon in Arthur Ashe
stadium does indeed turn out to be the last, it will come on the most appropriate stage for the two finest American players of their remarkable generation.
Sampras vs. Agassi has been a dream final for most of the last decade, and it is perhaps more so than ever this year, because few would have dreamed that Sampras was capable of taking part in it.
But he has shaken free from a demoralizing slump, and on a memorable, sunlit afternoon yesterday, first he and then, with more difficulty, Agassi booked their spots in the United States Open men's final.
The 31-year-old Sampras advanced with a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory over Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands; the 32-year-old Agassi then prevailed against the top-seeded player, Lleyton Hewitt, the defending champion, in an often breathtaking semifinal by the score of 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (1), 6-2.
"I've worked all year thinking about tomorrow," Agassi said. `Pete and I are both here again, and it's going to be a blast."
It will be the fifth meeting between Sampras and Agassi in a Grand Slam final. Sampras has won three times. Whoever wins today will be the oldest Open singles champion since 1970, when Ken Rosewall won at 35.
"I think we're both aware of it," Sampras said, when asked if it had crossed his mind that this could be their last meeting in a Grand Slam final. "There was a point five years ago when he and I were so dominant, there was a good chance we were going to get to the finals. Now, it's hard to say."
Pushed to the undercard and a morning start on the signature day for American tennis, Sampras still played like a main attraction yesterday to reach the men's final at the United States Open for the third consecutive year with a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory over Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands.
There was an edge to Sampras's serve and volley from the beginning: when he won the first seven points with controlled aggression and fluid movement inside a cavernous stadium that was not yet half full. And though Sampras was unable to convert his hunger and energy into domination until the third set against the resourceful and deceptively powerful Schalken, he was able to dominate in the critical phases of the first two sets.
"He's serving very well," said Schalken, who never broke Sampras's serve and had no break-point opportunities in the first two sets.
A victory in the final today would give Sampras a 14th Grand Slam singles title and pad his lead in the record books; it would also provide the perfect response to the increasingly insistent questions about whether Sampras was wise to continue playing despite demoralizing results during the past two seasons.
He has not won a tournament since Wimbledon in 2000, when he broke his tie with Roy Emerson by winning his 13th major, and he has often looked weak in spirit and the knees as the losses have accumulated against younger men. This year, he scraped bottom twice, losing to Alex Corretja of Spain in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Houston and, more shockingly, losing in the second round of his favorite tournament, Wimbledon, to George Bastl, a qualifier from Switzerland.
Both those defeats came on his best surface, grass, and during the match against Bastl, Sampras, a man whose natural ability and confidence under great pressure has often allowed him to make this tricky game look easy, was reduced to reading a motivational letter from his wife on changeovers.
After years of stability, Sampras has changed coaches three times in the past nine months, switched agents and even fiddled with the string tension in his trusty small-headed racket. His search for answers has often been uncomfortable to watch, but after convincing a former coach, Paul Annacone, to help him part time after his collapse at Wimbledon, Sampras arrived in New York looking fresh and eager to get to the net. Most importantly, he had fine rhythm and control on his signature shot: the serve.
"I just couldn't get them on my racket, because he was placing the ball so good," said Schalken, who spent much of the 2 hours 24 minutes of the match guessing incorrectly about the destination of Sampras's serve. "I couldn't touch a ball, so I was only actually playing on my own games, but he can play."
Sampras used to bank on Wimbledon to save his seasons. The last time he won a major somewhere other at the All England Club was here in 1996. But the Open has become his refuge in the last three years. He has not won: being overwhelmed by Marat Safin in the 2000 final and by Hewitt in the final last year. But he has, in general, done a fine impression of his former self.
This year's run was the most unexpected. He came in seeded 17th, and though he needed five sets to get past Greg Rusedski, he lost only one set in his five other matches. That economical approach to this tournament could prove important in the final, and while he had less than 24 hours to recover before the final the last two years, his morning start and relatively early finish gave him slightly more than 24 hours this time.
"It's a pretty tough turnaround emotionally and physically, but I feel I can do it," Sampras said in an interview on the court after the match yesterday.
In the first-set tie breaker yesterday, after rolling to a 4-0 lead, Sampras proceeded to drop the next five points. He then saved a set point at 5-6 with an elegant high backhand volley. Two exchanges later, he took the lead for good by surprising Schalken with a forehand.
When the Dutchman's forehand sailed long, Sampras let go with a scream that was as close to primal as the mild-mannered champion has come. As he marched to his chair, he announced, "That's what I'm talking about."
This was therapeutic, and when he won the second-set tie breaker with another unreadable first serve and another firm-wristed backhand volley, he bellowed again.
The question now is what sort of noises he will be making in Arthur Ashe Stadium late this afternoon.
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