Posted on: September 07th, 2002
Open season for Uncles Slam
- petepageSource: Alix Ramsay
IF you want a job done properly, get a professional. After a year of upsets and confusion at the grand slam events – prizes will be awarded to anyone who can name the past three champions – Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi restored a little order and decorum yesterday. Both reached the final of the US Open and will, today, play each other for the 34th time in their careers.
In a world of young whipper snappers with huge egos and bigger bank balances, the old boys were pulling rank. Sampras did away with Sjeng Schalken 7-6, 7-6, 6-2 and Agassi did likewise to Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 and both looked awfully chuffed about it.
Now they have each other to face and that brought a smile to Sampras’s face. He was done and dusted in a little over two hours and was planning a quiet night in with Mrs Sampras and a beer. Agassi, meanwhile, was in the thick of battle with the ATP’s very own road runner. Sampras was going to be a good deal fresher than his old rival when they got up this morning.
Sampras also knows that he has had the edge in his last two matches with Agassi. He has had the most miserable run of his career recently, hitting rock bottom at Wimbledon when he was beaten by George Bastl, a lucky loser, in the second round, but the old man still feels that he has a title or two left in him.
“I’ve never felt like an underdog,” Sampras said. “Even though I’m not seeded very high, I never, ever feel that I’m the underdog. I still feel that when I step out against any of these guys, I’m the favourite to win. Maybe not on paper, maybe not in a lot of people’s minds, but in my heart I still believe I’m the one to beat. I haven’t showed that this year, but that’s OK.”
Against Schalken he was showing exactly what he used to be. He crushed the tall and gentle Dutchman with 23 aces, with 85 forays to the net and with delight. It was the Sampras of old, the arrogant Sampras who has won 13 grand slam trophies, the Sampras who knows that he has what it takes to win. No one has seen that particular Sampras for a long, long time.
Schalken, though, had nothing to lose. He had never reached a grand slam semi-final before so anything that happened yesterday was a bonus.
His game plan was simple: keep the old man running around for as long as possible and wait for him to run out of puff. It sounded logical enough but it did involve getting his racquet on the ball. That was the difficult part.
“In the shape he is now in, everything is one step higher,” Schalken said with a shrug. “Everything goes one step faster. He was just serving so good that I couldn’t get them on my racquet. He was placing the ball so good with 120 mph serves, I couldn’t touch the ball so I was actually only playing in my own service games. He can play from the baseline, too, so I was under pressure the whole match.”
Agassi knows all about pressure – he is the master of match play, knowing just when and how to squeeze an opponent until he squeals. The trouble was that Hewitt wouldn’t squeal. The defending champion took the early lead in the first two sets, but the former champion was having none of that. If Hewitt wanted to chase every ball, Agassi would let him, forcing him this way and that and making him work for every point.
Hewitt made the fatal error of showing the great and balding one a slight hint of weakness –- his first serve was erratic and fallible. Against the best returner in the business, that was not wise. But Hewitt had one ace up his sleeve – he would not give in.
Where Schalken conveniently folded in the third set against Sampras, Hewitt began to claw his way back into the match. He stole the fourth set and was digging in nicely for a long scrap when Agassi decided to finish things. He broke for a 3-2 lead, fended off a break point to make it 4-2 and then struck the final blow to break again and make it 5-2. From then on he was home and dry.
So now he has Sampras to deal with. They first met in a grand slam here back in 1990. It was the final and the spoils went to Sampras, the first of his 13 major trophies. To be back at it again 12 years later is the stuff of dreams.
“It will just be a huge moment for both of us, for the game,” Sampras said. “Two older players, two rivals over the years. He brings out the best in me. To walk out there with him will be unique, very special. And I feel like I’m pretty ready.”
As he sat back and watched Agassi’s match unfold, Sampras would not admit to supporting his old foe, but it was obvious that he had a favourite out there. “I wouldn’t say that I’m rooting for him,” he said, “but it will be special to play him. It’s hard to say how many times we are going to play each other here, let alone in a grand slam final.
“I have a lot of respect for Andre. He’s the best returner in the game. It’s a great clash, it will be one to remember.”
Those were Agassi’s thoughts exactly. “Where else in the world would you rather be?” he said. “I’ve worked all year for this, working towards this match. It’s going to be a blast.”
With 63 years, 20 grand slam titles and not a parting between them, you can trust the old boys to do it properly.
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