Posted on: October 30th, 2006
Sampras Beats Martin in 'Duel Under the Oaks'
- petepageBATON ROUGE -- Pete Sampras defeated fellow tennis pro Todd Martin in the main event of the "Duel Under the Oaks" event held at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Sampras' win capped off a successful day of charitable events sponsored by Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation that helped raise more than $400,000 for LSU Health Sciences Center students impacted by the hurricanes that ripped through Louisiana in 2005.
"This day wasn’t about winning or losing, we just wanted to give the fans an entertaining match for a good cause," Sampras said. "Seeing the images and footage of the damage done by hurricanes Katrina and Rita were unbelievable. I am glad Todd and I could give the fans a nice show."
Activities began at 9 a.m. with a tennis clinic for boys and girls, ages 7-17, at W.T. Robinson Tennis Stadium. Sampras and Martin joined both LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams in showing the youngsters the basic fundamentals of playing tennis. Prizes were given throughout the clinic and both Martin and Sampras signed autographs for the kids.
"The clinic went really well and was a nice start to a great day of tennis," LSU men’s head coach Jeff Brown said. "The kids got to play tennis with not only our teams but Todd Martin and Pete Sampras really went above and beyond what they had to do by hitting with each kid. Thos kids have something they will always remember."
Following the clinic festivities moved over to the Maravich Center for the tennis exhibitions. The first match was the white and purple challenge with members of the men’s and women’s teams. Danny Bryan and Megan Falcon represented the purple team and Ken Skupski and Hannah Robinson represented the white team. The match ended with a 6-all tie.
After the LSU exhibition, a celebrity doubles match took place featuring the teams of Martin and actor Scott Foley of the TV hit "The Unit" against Sampras and Baton Rouge native Wes Brown, currently staring in the movie "We are Marshall." Martin’s team was coached by LSU coaches Brown and women’s coach Tony Minnis. Sampras’ team was coached by his sister, Stella Sampras-Webster.
Martin’s team took an early 1-0 advantage but Foley’s play did not satisfy Coach Minnis as he went to look for a new partner for Martin. A lucky young fan named Haley was chosen out of the crowd to pair with the tennis pro. Haley held her own forcing Sampras-Webster to also look for a new partner for her brother. A young boy named Dylan was chosen to replace Brown as the 14-time grand slam champion’s partner.
After a heated battle with the youngsters and tennis pros, the celebrities retook the floor to try and redeem themselves.
Brown overcame his early struggles as he helped Sampras to tie the match by a 2-all decision.
Following the celebrity match the main event took place as Sampras went heads up against Martin.
After Martin took a 2-1 lead, Sampras rallied back to tie the score at 3-all. The two tennis pros spilt the next four games to take the score to 5-all. Sampras gained the momentum from there as he took the first set by a 7-6 decision.
Martin returned the favor in the second set as he outlasted Sampras by a 7-6 decision.
The tennis pros continued their heated battle in the tiebreaker but Sampras took control in the end as he won the tiebreaker, 11-9, to take the match.
"Everybody was affected in some way by what happened with the hurricanes and like many others we felt compelled to help out," Martin said. "It was a long day but I had a lot of fun and just glad we could put on a nice show."
Source: LSU Sports Interactive
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