Gritty Sampras grinds out win
April 24, 2002
It was Pete Sampras, but not the Pete Sampras tennis fans are used to watching.
Eschewing his traditional serve-and-volley game that helped him win 13 Grand Slam titles, Sampras rallied for a 4- 6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over Jan Vacek on Tuesday before another sellout crowd at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships.
Playing his first match since losing a two-set lead on grass to Alex Corretja in a Davis Cup tie against Spain 18 days ago, also at Westside Tennis Club, the fourth-seeded Sampras stayed primarily on the baseline to outlast his Czech Republic foe on his least favorite surface.
"It was a better result, but it wasn't easy out there," Sampras said. "The court played pretty slippery, and that's clay-court tennis. You just have to grind it out because it's not always going to be pretty.
"If the court's playing quicker and the conditions are warmer, the ball goes through the air pretty quick, and I tend to come in a little bit more. Tonight (the air) was pretty heavy, and it was tough to come in."
The unseeded Vacek, ranked 79th in the world, made it clear from the start that he was going to attack Sampras' backhand, and the strategy paid off in the first set. Vacek, 1-9 this season entering the match, broke Sampras twice in the first set en route to the early lead.
"I give him a lot of credit because he came up with a lot of good stuff," Sampras said. "Even though I lost that first set, I still felt like I was hitting the ball better and got it going."
Vacek then lost his touch from the baseline early in the second set, and Sampras capitalized with two quick breaks to race out to a 4-0 lead. Sampras lost only two points on his serve in the set, thanks in part to a huge inside-out forehand that resulted in five clean winners and put Vacek on his heels.
"I started hitting my backhand a little better and getting it more cross court to his backhand, and that opened things up for me," Sampras said. "I just tried to make him move as much as possible."
Sampras' serve also improved as the match wore on, and that was evident when he closed out the second-set romp with an 128-mph service winner and a 125-mph ace.
"I felt like I needed to pop some first serves to see if I could get a couple cheap points," Sampras said. "As the match went on, I started picking the lines with some pretty good pace, and I felt I was getting stronger as the match went on."
After each man couldn't convert a break point early in the third, Sampras failed to take advantage of four break points in the seventh game. He then had a scare of his own, serving at 40-40 with Vacek leading 5-4, but the seven-time Wimbledon champion threw in an 130-mph ace up the "T" and a crosscourt forehand winner to hold. Vacek then had two double faults in the next game to give Sampras another break point, and Sampras got the break -- figuratively and literally -- when Vacek's backhand passing shot hit the tape and kicked back.
"For a minute, I thought it was the bad luck in Houston," Sampras said of the lost break opportunities. "I had those break points and I thought that maybe it wasn't meant to be, but I finally came in on that point and he missed the backhand, and it was nice to get over that hurdle.
"You can feel like you're so close, like I was in the Corretja match, but it's a case of getting through that barrier and tonight I did that."
Sampras then held at love, clinching the two-hour-plus match with his ninth ace.
"It got a little tight there in the third, but it's going to take time," said Sampras, who meets qualifier Mariano Puerta in the second round Thursday. "It's a process getting my game going on clay, but this is a good start. I just need to be a touch more aggressive in my next match. It's a good start and there's no question I have things to work on. It's just playing matches and building confidence. You can practice all you want but playing matches is totally different," Pete now faces Argentina's Mariano Puerta in the next round.
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