Pete outlast Escude - Notes from Rd 3
January 19, 2002
The marathon match lasted 3 hrs 50 mins until finally Pete was able to
serve an ace to win his third round match against Frenchman Nicolas Escude
7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
Brief highlights of the match
First set went to a tiebreak with Escude getting an early lead at 3-1. Pete
won the next 5 points and edged out Escude 7-5
Second set was on serve until 5-6. Pete was serving to force a tiebreak
but double faults and a good return from Escude caused him to lose the set.
Third set. At 3-3, Escude served 2 doublefaults to give Pete a 0-30 lead.
Pete grabbed the opportunity and broke Escude for the first time in the
match. Pete held serve in the succeeding games to close the set at 6-4
Fourth set. Pete gained an upperhand and lead 4-2, but let Escude back
into the match and level it at 4-4. The set went into another tiebreak.
Pete squandered 3 of his match points and Escude squeaked through 8-6 to
force a fifth set.
Fifth set. Pete storms into an early lead by breaking Escude's serve twice
for a 4-0 lead. But Pete loses his own serve. At 5-3, Pete serves for the
match. An ace on his 7th match point sealed the win!
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Sampras sets up showdown against Safin
January 19, 2002
Pete Sampras and Marat Safin will face each other for a quarter-final spot
in the Australian Open on Monday.
Sampras overcame Nicolas Escude in a monumental five-set third round match.
Sampras double-faulted on the first of three match points in the fourth
set tie-break and Escude saved the others and took the contest into a decider.
However, Sampras went 4-0 up in the fifth and, although he lost one of
the breaks on another double fault and failed to take three more match points
at 5-2, won on his seventh match point 7-6 5-7 6-4 6-7 6-3 after three hours
50 minutes.
It was only the third time in 13 five-set matches in his career that Davis
Cup hero Escude had come out a loser.
Sampras said: "I got a bit tight in the fourth and let it slip away
but rebounded quickly. He is a very talented player. It was a tough match
and it does not get any easier now. Marat is playing well."
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Sampras edges Escude in five-set thriller
Reuters
January 18, 2002
Pete Sampras held his nerve to blast past France's Nicolas Escude in a
tense fifth set to reach the Australian Open fourth round.
After blowing three match points in a fourth set tiebreak, Sampras, the
number eight seed, regrouped to win the titanic battle 7-6 5-7 6-4 6-7 6-3
after three hours and 50 minutes of high drama.
He clubbed down his 33rd ace on his seventh match point as the clock hit
1:42am local time on Sunday morning to set up a last 16 match-up against
explosive ninth seed Marat Safin.
Sampras, holder of a record 13 grand slam titles, has not won a major since
Wimbledon 2000 but is hitting ominously good form in Melbourne.
"I let it get away there in the fourth set when I got tight it was
a tough match, a tough match," Sampras said.
"It was good tennis out there we both played well, both had our chances.
He is a very talented tennis player.
"I'm going to enjoy this for about five minutes and then look forward
to Monday."
Escude was playing on the Rod Laver Arena centre court for the first time
since leading France to a shock Davis Cup final victory over Australia last
year, but just fell short of repeating the heroics of that December clash.
"It was a great feeling coming back onto this court... but I am very
disappointed to have lost this match," the Frenchman said.
"It was a very good fight but he was better than me today, that's
all.
"I was very tired, very stiff in my legs. It was, well, it was a shame."
Sampras snatched the opening set under floodlights in 54 minutes, winning
the tiebreak with some aggressive net play.
But Escude, the tournament's 30th seed, hit straight back in the second
breaking at 6-5 when Sampras double-faulted to square the match.
A single break in the third set, Sampras's first of the match, gave the
American a two-sets- to-one lead as local time turned midnight and he broke
Escude for 3-2 in the fourth.
Cheered on by his Hollywood actress wife Bridgette Wilson
and Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia, Sampras held in some style to stretch
into a 4-2 lead.
Escude held serve for 4-3 and then put great pressure on the Sampras serve.
The Frenchman earned a break point when his opponent netted a volley and
broke back with a double-fisted passing shot.
Escude moved 5-4 ahead with an ace which rattled Sampras who was convinced
the serve was long.
The Cyclops machine - used to indicate when a serve is long - was turned
off after it was set off mid-point by moths in the stadium, and Sampras
pegged the Frenchman back to 5-5.
Escude nudged into the lead 6-5 despite some sizzling returns from Sampras
but the American forced the second tiebreak of the match.
A second break in the tiebreak gave Sampras a 6-3 lead and three match
points.
He double-faulted on his first, going for a second serve ace down the middle,
and Escude mis-hit a forehand return which fell in on the second.
Escude saved the third match point when Sampras put a backhand return wide
and earned a set point when the next return also hit the net. He converted
it with a spectacular forehand running passing shot to take the match into
a fifth set.
Stung by the loss of those three match points, Sampras came out firing,
broke at the first time of asking and stretched into a 3-0 lead.
He broke again for 4-0 and despite some French resistance with a counter
break in the fifth game, held on for a 5-2 lead.
The American wasted another three match points in that game as Escude came
back from 0- 40 down to hold, but converted his next match point a game
later for the most dramatic victory of the tournament.
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Australian Open - Round 3
Post-Match Interview
Pete Sampras defeats Nicolas Escude
7-6 5-7 6-4 6-7 6-3
Q. Would you say that was a little bit of a statement of intent, perhaps,
for the championship, the victory and the way you carved it out in the end?
A. Well, you could look at it the other way, that I had the match firmly
in my hands there and up a break in the fourth, three match points at 6-3,
and I kind of second-guessed myself there at 6-4 in the breaker and I told
myself to go up the middle because I'd been hitting that serve well all
night and I went out wide and he kind of had a mis-hit forehand return.
After that fourth set loss I was really happy with the way I bounced back
and got an early break in the fifth, you know, 4-0, serving with new the
balls. Once again, I got a little bit careless, he picked up his game a
little bit. But if this sends a message to the rest of the guys, I don't
know. It was a hard-fought win, and I would have loved to have closed it
out in four sets, but I didn't do it. It was a good mental effort to kind
of come back there in the fifth. He's a very, very good player, Nicolas.
He really has every shot in the book. He has a big first serve and returns
well, and doesn't have many holes in his game. So I definitely had to work
very hard tonight, and it was a good one to get through.
Q. I think there was a feeling of, having gone through what you went through
in that fourth set, the kind of explosive start you made to the fifth, when
perhaps a lot of other players might have said, "It's not going to
be my night"?
A. It's experience, just being out there in a lot of big matches, and being
in that position where you have had the match in your hands and you let
it slip away. When I was younger it was one of those matches where it would
have taken me four games to recover from it. But now, having been through
that, you just had no choice but to kind of recover quickly, and try to
put whatever happened in the fourth behind you and try to get off to a good
start. I was playing fine. I just didn't close it out, I just didn't close
it out in the fourth, and a little experience and belief in myself getting
through a tough match. Mentally it was a grind out there, we both played
very well at the same time. I thought it was good tennis.
Q. Can you enjoy this for five minutes?
A. That's about it. It's gone. I'm already thinking it's 3 in the morning
and I'm not going to get to sleep till late, and I won't have so much time
to recover, and I have a pretty tough opponent coming up.
Q. Can you tell us a bit more about Nicolas's game and his personality
and all of that?
A. Yes. He is mentally very strong, and he's got a good game. He really
has a very big first serve. I didn't realise it was that big. I have never
played Nicolas, so it took a little while to get used to his serve. He mixed
it up very well. He is a good athlete. He really moves well, and he's a
tough guy to put away, as we saw tonight. So he's someone who could easily
break into the Top 20 and even beyond, because he's got a lot of talent.
Q. Do you think experience also counts for a lot, Pete, in the kind of
conditions when you've got the bleeper's not working, there are moths flying
around, you've got all sorts of strange things happening: is that another
thing where you think that, having been through all kinds of experiences,
this is where it begins to count a little bit?
A. Well, it helps, kind of being through some different situations over
the course of my career with, whatever it may be, if it's tough calls or
things aren't going your way, and you just try to stay positive. We had
the moths all around the court and the beeper was going off and the net
court thing seemed like it wasn't working that well - I'm going to be the
Mark Cuban of tennis - you know, complain about - but you can't let it frustrate
you too much. There are going to be mistakes out there and you're going
to have distractions, and it's just a matter of keeping your composure,
and I think I did that pretty well tonight.
Q. How do you feel?
A. I feel pretty good, yes. It was four hours - a long match - and training
I put in this off-season was well worth it, and so I have a little bit of
time to recover and get ready for Monday.
Q. Pete, did you do anything radically different in the off season; we
heard that Moose did something with your diet?
A. He has always been on me for my diet.
Q. Not Vegemite on toast?
A. No, he's not; I can't stomach that. It was more - just, he is a very
strict vegetarian, everything he puts in his body is good for him, and I've
got a pretty good diet and I look at the way he trains and eats and I look
up to it, the way he lives his life, trains every day, and it's a way of
life and it's good to be around that. I'm around Moose a lot, and when we
go to a restaurant I'm very particular what I order, because if I order
anything that he doesn't like, he'll let me know.
Q. Will he send it back?
A. He goes, "No, mate, you're not eating that", so I say "All
right, you're right", so I won't order that. So he's just been more
on it, just being a little more disciplined with the diet, and that always
helps.
Q. Are you disciplined ordering when he's not there?
A. Yes, especially when you're competing and training hard, you're making
an effort to put good quality stuff in your body and, you know, you need
every advantage out there, especially at the Slams, and so it has worked
out pretty well.
Q. Do you think you could pull this match off a year ago at this time,
a match like this?
A. Sure. You know, I've been doing it for a while now, and the matches
that I've lost have been close, but this one I got through it. A year ago
it is hard to say what would have happened here, but I don't see a big difference
from a year ago and this year, just maybe playing a touch better, prepared
a little bit better, and maybe it's giving me some good results here.
Q. Do you think, Pete, this could be the start of quite a special year?
A. I hope so, I really do. I hope it's a good year, and everyone is kind
of talking about last year and what happened, and when you raise the bar
that high it is tough to win Majors every year, and I'm probably criticised
more than anyone in the game when you don't win Majors. I'm my biggest critic,
but I do have that high bar, but it would be nice to start off and to do
well here at the Australian Open, and just kind of build from doing well
here and having a good Davis Cup time, and just have a good year.
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