Sampras wins at Clay Court tourney
April 25, 2002
In a transformation much
like Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, Pete Sampras looked like a clay-court champion
Thursday.
Turning up the heat in all aspects of his game, Sampras cruised to an impressive 6-4, 6-2 victory over qualifier Mariano Puerta in a second-round match before a sellout crowd at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships at Westside Tennis Club.
Before you say, "Mariano Puerta?," don't be fooled. This 21-year-old from Argentina won five clay-court titles in 2000 and was ranked 21st in the world at the end of that campaign. Yet Sampras, notorious for his lack of clay- court success outside of Davis Cup play, made Puerta look like a novice on the red dirt.
Sampras was tentative in his first-round match Tuesday against Jan Vacek, but that wasn't the case against Puerta. He returned to his patented serve-and-volley game, plus pounded groundstrokes from each side.
"My goal tonight was to be aggressive and come in as much I could, plus serve and volley," Sampras said. "Mariano likes long points where he can grind you down and even though we got into some of those rallies, I felt like I was holding my own pretty good from the back court. If I can beat him at that game, he really has no choice but to press and he ended up missing a few shots.
"I felt my serve shocked him tonight," Sampras said. "When I got a few aces he didn't feel he could control it. I just had it going tonight. The timing was there."
Sampras, the fourth seed, controlled both sets with his booming serve although Puerta got his only chance to get into the match when he broke Sampras in the fourth game of the second set.
That was the last game that Puerta won. Puerta won only one point on his serve in the fifth game and hit a forehand out of bounds at the break point.
Sampras broke Puerta at the first break point in the seventh game and then put the Argentine away with a love game on four aces in the eighth game.
Sampras, who struggled in a first round victory over Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic, wanted to be more aggressive against Puerta.
"I just felt a lot more comfortable tonight with my footing and finding the range with my forehand and backhand, and really dictated play. I didn't give him a chance to get his game going."
The biggest change for Sampras was his backhand. Instead of chipping returns and groundstrokes, Sampras often came over the top on the ball and cracked a number of winners to both sides of the court.
"(On Wednesday at practice) I worked on some things to get my rhythm, and I strung my rackets a little bit tighter because I felt like (the ball) was flying on me (in the match Tuesday)," Sampras said. "If I can get that backhand going and get it deep, it can open up my forehand and that's when I'm dominant. That's a big shot for me on clay."
So is his serve, which was back on form. Sampras pounded 16 aces in only nine service games, including four straight to close out the match.
Sampras' win earned him an all-American quarterfinal match with Todd Martin, who advanced with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Nikolay Davydenko. Sampras has won 17 of 21 meetings with his Davis Cup teammate, but Martin has won the last two.
"I've never beaten him on clay, though, and that's interesting to me because I would figure that if I were to beat him anywhere, it would be on the clay," Martin said. "But I'm excited about having another chance to play because I love the red clay, and I know Pete is excited about his opportunities and the fact that he's won a few matches. You have two guys sort of in the same boat and we'll see who comes up with the goods."
Sampras, trying to win his first tournament since his seventh Wimbledon title in 2000, broke Puerta in the fifth game of the first set with a backhand dropshot at break point for a 3-2 lead.
Sampras served a love 10th game for the first set and closed it out with an ace.
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