Posted on: March 07th, 2008
Martin beats Sampras in Jacksonville
- petepageTodd Martin gave the hometown crowd a thrill Thursday night when he defeated tennis legend Pete Sampras in the Serving Up Aces exhibition at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.
The Ponte Vedra Beach resident won 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 over the Grand Slam titles record-holder in a match played on the Premier Court indoor carpet surface.
"It's old hat," Martin joked after the match. "That's the fifth time I've beaten him. I've lost to him 25 times."
Martin said it was particularly gratifying to play well against Sampras in front of the local crowd of about 3,000. Martin took an early break in the first set, then held serve to take a 3-1 lead.
"Winning, frankly, is really nice," Martin said. "The thing I was most concerned about was coming out here and getting shellacked, but I kept that from happening early in the match, which was good. That sort of made me relax a little bit."
Sampras, who will play an exhibition match against World No. 1 Roger Federer next week at New York's Madison Square Garden, rebounded after dropping the first set Thursday. He won three games at love in the second, as the players traded service wins to force a tiebreak. Sampras hit back-to-back winners to take the set.
Sampras and Martin agreed after that to play the third set as an extended tiebreaker, the way their exhibitions usually go. But when the chair umpire announced the decision to the crowd, the fans voiced their displeasure.
"It's like a rock band," Martin said. "They were getting upset that we walked off the stage."
The fans won out in the end as the former ATP stars agreed to play a full final set.
"I was really pleased that, especially in front of my friends and neighbors ... that Pete was willing to play a third set and give them what they wanted," Martin said.
Martin won the first three games of the third set, which was interrupted at one point when a fan shouted "Pete, your wife is hot!" Sampras, who's married to actress Bridgette Wilson, paused for a moment, smirked a little and prepared to serve again.
Martin said that, despite the more relaxed atmosphere of the exhibition, it's still important to former pros to play their best.
"As much as it meant to us years ago to be the best we could be, it's still real important for us when we go out to compete at our best, especially when we are challenged to our greatest," Martin said. "For me, playing Pete on a [quick] court like this is as much of a challenge as I'm ever going to get again."
Source: Jacksonville.com
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