The rivalry yet again!
April 26, 2002
Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras have combined for 20 Grand Slam titles and met 32 times in their storied careers. Houston tennis fans will get to witness No. 33 tonight in the semifinals of the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships.
Sampras, who owns an 18-14 series edge on Agassi, advanced with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) quarterfinal win over Todd Martin at Westside Tennis Club on Friday night.
Sampras continued to play well on his least favorite surface as he jumped on Martin early, breaking him twice in the 21-minute romp.
"I returned pretty well, but I don't think Todd served all that well in the first set and I had a lot of second-serve opportunities to get into the rallies," Sampras said. "Todd got off to kind of a slow start, while I was moving well and hitting the ball pretty clean, but I knew he'd step it up in the second and serve a little better, and he did."
Martin had all eight of his aces in the second set and had two set points on Sampras' serve at 5-4, but Sampras saved both with a big cross-court forehand and an ace.
"It could have turned around pretty quickly there, but I played a couple smart points there and managed to squeak through that game and then got the serve going," Sampras said.
In the tiebreaker, Sampras
did not miss a first serve. He threw in his 13th and 14th aces of the match,
plus twice bombed serves wide to the ad court and hit forehand winners behind
Martin, the last on match point.
In the other quarter-final, Agassi beat Kristian Pless of Denmark on Friday night to reach the semifinals in the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships and earn a matchup with Sampras, who leads the series 18-14.
"You play so many times you don't expect many surprises," Agassi said. "If you've played someone a lot of matches, you get more confidence. The match settles quickly because you know what the other guy is trying to do. "I always relish the opportunity of playing Pete.' He has won three of their four meetings on clay. "Those opportunities don't happen very often any more."
"It's always fun, no matter which surface or which continent, it's always special," Sampras said. "The older we get the more we play at our best and I appreciate it more. It should be a good one and I'm looking forward to it," Sampras said. "There's a lot of pride out there and hopefully we'll put on a good show."
Sampras owns an 18-14 series edge on Agassi.
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