Posted on: December 23rd, 2002
2002 REVIEW: Serena and Sampras [Dec 23, 2002]
- petepageBY HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
Dec 23, 2002 9:50 p.m.
Tennis 2002 was mainly about Serena and Sampras.
For all the out-of-nowhere champions, fantastic comebacks and high-profile spats, the sport's most significant scenes came courtesy of the younger Williams and Pistol Pete.
Emerging as the best player in her home and the world, Williams swept the last three Grand Slam titles for what she called a "Serena Slam" -- beating sister Venus each time.
If hers was the most impressive overall performance, Sampras' exclamation point of a U.S. Open had to be the most personally satisfying moment.
"This one may take the cake," Sampras said after beating Andre Agassi for a fifth U.S. Open title and record 14th in a Grand Slam event. "The way I've been going this year, to come through a very tough time and play like this - it was awesome."
He had been hounded for more than a year by questions about retirement. Sampras entered the Open with a 20-16 match record for the year, no titles since July 2000, and he even was written off by Greg Rusedski as "a step and a half slow" AFTER their match at Flushing Meadows.
The final against Agassi was a marquee matchup straight out of the early 1990s. Sampras is his generation's greatest server, Agassi its top returner, and each played the assigned role to perfection. Sampras boomed 33 aces at up to 132 mph, and won the point on 69 of 105 net trips. Agassi conjured up 19 groundstroke winners to Sampras' 16.
Even Agassi acknowledged: "It was special."
And maybe their sons will meet at the 2022 U.S. Open: Sampras' wife, actress Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, gave birth in November; Agassi's wife, Steffi Graf, did last year.
In the afterglow of winning the Open, the 31-year-old
Sampras sounded like someone ready to walk away. But by the middle of December, he had announced plans to keep playing and persuaded Paul Annacone to resume as his full-time coach.
Other players might want to think about asking whether Richard or Oracene Williams is available for lessons; they managed to raise the first two siblings to reach Nos. 1-2 in the rankings.
Venus -- at 22, older by 15 months -- and Serena claimed that distinction right after the French Open. At that point, Venus was No. 1, but Serena overtook her at Wimbledon and stayed on top.
They continued to grow as players and people on the sport's biggest stages.
After Serena won a mistake-strewn final at Roland Garros - 101 unforced errors, 14 double faults, 13 service breaks - Venus grabbed Oracene's camera and joined the photojournalists snapping shots of the champion with her trophy.
At Wimbledon, they were truly Slammin' Sisters: trading hard shots, getting to balls that would have been winners against anyone else. When it was over, with another victory for little sis, Venus - who had won two straight titles at the All England Club - leaned over and whispered: "You have to curtsy. Did you know that?"
Serena capped her run at the U.S. Open, where she didn't drop a set, the same as at Wimbledon.
"I was just tired of losing," said Serena, who has just as many major titles as Venus, four. "Life was passing me by."
Serena went 56-5 (.918 winning percentage) with a tour-high eight titles (in 13 tournaments). Venus was 0-4 against Serena, 58-5 against everyone else.
In the 1900s, two siblings never met for a Grand Slam title. These sisters did it three times in as many months.
Lleyton Hewitt (who won Wimbledon and finished a second straight year at No. 1) and Amelie Mauresmo (twice a Grand Slam semifinalist) were among those wondering aloud whether fans want to see more all-Williams title matches.
"People may get sick of seeing the two of them playing in every Grand Slam final all the time," Hewitt said.
The only major where
they didn't decide the title was the Australian Open, which Serena skipped with an ankle injury.
The champion there was Jennifer Capriati for a second straight time. That was her highlight; she didn't win another title and was off the Fed Cup team after fighting with captain Billie Jean King.
Capriati won in Melbourne by saving four match points against Martina Hingis, a record for a women's final at a major.
That actually was Hingis' high point, too. The former No. 1 had ankle surgery in May and pulled out of the French Open and Wimbledon - the first majors she missed since turning pro in 1994. She returned in August, then went back to rehab in October.
No comeback was more inspiring than Corina Morariu's. She returned to Grand Slam action less than 1½ years after starting treatment for leukemia, playing Serena Williams in the first round of the U.S. Open. Alas, now Morariu's sidelined up to six months after shoulder surgery.
Lindsay Davenport and Chanda Rubin had knee surgery in January, and both were winning matches by the summer. Rubin won two titles, and Davenport reached finals at four of nine tournaments. Gustavo Kuerten, though, wasn't the same after hip surgery.
Other story lines:
Thomas Johansson (Australian Open) and Albert Costa (French Open) shockingly won majors, David Nalbandian's first grass-court tourney ended with a loss to Hewitt in the Wimbledon final, and Sjeng Schalken made the U.S. Open semifinals.
Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand vaulted from 126th to 16th in the rankings.
Russia won its first Davis Cup title, Slovakia won its first Fed Cup title.
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Cedric Pioline and Sandrine Testud retired.
Anna Kournikova didn't win a match at a major, extended her career-long title drought to more than 115 events, had an argument with a British TV interviewer, and threatened to sue Penthouse after it published nude pictures of another woman and billed them as photos of her.
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