Upsets at the Indian Wells
March 1989
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Two-time defending champion Boris Becker and second-seed Stefan Edberg powered to straight-set victories and wild-card entry Pete Sampras upset No. 9-seed Aaron Krickstein Tuesday in the second round of the $702,500 Newsweek Champions Cup.
The top-seeded Becker, of West Germany, recovering from the flu, defeated unseeded South African Danie Visser 6-3, 6-4. Edberg, the current Wimbledon champion, eliminated Austrian Horst Skoff 6-4, 6-4.
Sampras, a 17-year-old from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. chosen as one of five wild-card entries, used a serve-and-volley strategy to pull off the first upset oe tournament. Sampras beat Krickstein 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-4).
''I'm trying to win at the net. That's my game now,'' said Sampras, ranked No. 113 in the world.
After dropping the first set, Sampras took a 4-3 lead in a second-set tie-breaker. Krickstein went ahead, 6-4, on successive double faults by Sampras. Krickstein, ranked No. 15 in the world, appeared to have won the tie-breaker and the match with a blazing service ace up the middle. But the serve was called wide.
Krickstein argued to no avail. He then double faulted, putting Sampras back in the set. The teenager went on to take the tie-breaker and the third set in another tiebreaker, 7-4.
''I was pretty fortunate to win the match today,'' Sampras said. ''I think (Krickstein) got discouraged in the third set, but he hung in there. It came down to me winning the big points in the tie-breaker.''
Krickstein said the disputed service call ''was pretty much the match. I would bet my life (the ball) was on the line. Obviously, I was frustrated. I thought the match was over.''
In the final match of the day, Argentina's Roberto Mancini, ranked 44th in the world, beat the tourney's eighth seed, Austrian Thomas Muster, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-5.
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