Sampras sets up Agassi dream final
January 11, 2002
Pete Sampras battled swirling, violent winds to beat Scott Draper 6-2 7-6 at the Kooyong Classic to set up a final meeting with Andre Agassi. "That wasn't a day to play tennis," Sampras said afterwards. "That was a day to fly a kite.
"It was by far the windiest conditions I have ever played through...it just wasn't easy as we saw from every aspect of the court," Sampras added.
Although pleased with the win, the match on Kooyong's Centre Court failed in its objective -- to give Sampras valid match practice ahead of next week's Australian Open. "You just couldn't get any timing," the American said.
"It was hard to work on anything out there. It was hard to get any rhythm, hard to get any rhythm on the serve, it is kind of a guessing game where the ball is going to go," Sampras added. "It is no fun to play in. The winner I guess is the player who guesses where the ball is going to go. It is not really tennis."
Sampras said that had he not had a match at the eight-man invitational event, he would not have practised in those conditions. "I wouldn't want to play tennis in this. I would rather play golf in this weather, but that wouldn't be pretty either."
Sampras said he was looking forward to his final warm-up on Saturday. "It is the toughest test I could find before the Australian Open," Sampras said "Andre is in pretty good form. He loves playing in these conditions.
"I will just see where I am at. You have to be at the top of your game to beat Andre and hopefully the conditions will be a little bit calmer and we can actually play some tennis," he added. "It will be competitive, trust me. We have such a history together."
In other action at Kooyong, America's Taylor Dent beat Open fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-4 7-6 and Alex Corretja left German Tommy Haas without a win in three matches here, the Spaniard winning 6-7 6-4 6-4.
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