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Stamina test for Sampras

January 20, 2002

Pete Sampras will take the powers of recovery of his 30-year-old body to the limit tonight.

The incomparable Sampras, the winner of a record 13 grand slam tournament singles titles, and powerful Russian Marat Safin are squared off for the biggest match of the Australian Open to date after impressive weekend victories.

The fourth round match is a rematch between the 2000 US Open finalists which Safin won in straight sets.

The men's draw gets serious today with the other two most fancied players left in the draw, seventh seeded German Tommy Haas and 11th seed Roger Federer due to play for a spot in a quarter final.

Safin was never in danger of being beaten by compatriot Mikhail Youzhny.

He only threatened self-mutilation in the third set in a run-in with umpire Norm Chryst before running out a 6-4 6-4 6-4 winner.

But Sampras had to battle much harder for his five-set win against French Davis Cup hero Nicolas Escude, squandering three fourth set match points before winning 7-6 5-7 6-4 6-7 6-3.

The veteran spent three hours and 50 minutes on court on a warm Melbourne evening for a match that finished just before 2am.

And afterwards, Sampras conceded that how his body pulled up would have a major bearing on his prospects tonight.

"I won't have much time to recover and I have a pretty tough opponent coming up," he said. "I feel pretty good. It was a long match, nearly four hours, and the training I put in this off-season was well worth it."

Sampras works with former Fitzroy and East Perth footballer Brett "Moose" Stephens, who has also helped Mark Philippoussis shed excess kilograms in his comeback to big time tennis.

"He is a very strict vegetarian, everything he puts in his body is good for him," Sampras said of Stephens. "I look at the way he trains and eats and I look up to it, the way he leads his life, trains every day and it is good to be around that.

"When we go to a restaurant I am very particular about what I order because if I order something that he doesn't like he will let me know."

Though the Sampras serve was the weapon which took him past Escude, it was a verbal serve which Safin handed Chryst which threatened to cost him his match against Youzhny.

Safin received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct after hitting a linesman with a tennis ball - he claimed he was trying to return the ball to a ball boy - and then uttering an audible obscenity.

He followed the on-court serve with a post match volley in the interview room.

"I am just so disappointed that these things happen to me with the same chair umpire," he said.

"We were playing great tennis and the guy - he just wants to show off. I don't know what is his problem. The guy almost destroyed our game. I almost lost the set."

Safin, who breaks racquets almost as routinely as he breaks opponents"serves, accused Chryst of showing a lack of respect because he did not remove his sunglasses when speaking to him.

"When he is talking to somebody, he has to take off the glasses as a matter of respect. I hate when somebody is talking to me with the glasses and I think it is not right. I am talking to him nicely and he is talking to me like, you know, I am king of the court and I can do anything I want."

He showed considerably more respect when asked to assess Sampras"game and form.

"I don't have to describe how he is playing," he said. "I think everybody knows. And he is the greatest, so it will be my honour to play against him. When he's on fire you have basically nothing to do. But if you stay with him you have a small chance, so you have to take it."

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