Sampras

For Pete Sampras, next week's Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., might offer him something of a home-court advantage.Then again it might not.One thing's for sure, the tournament will be an unusual experience for Sampras. Those boisterous fans cheering on the No. 1 tennis player in the world? Oh, just 40 or so of Sampras' relatives.But Sampras doesn't seem to mind. He's happy to be returning to the area where he was born and spent the first seven years of his life.Sampras, 22, was born about 15 minutes from Washington in Potomac.

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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Andre Agassi, reborn yet again -- this time as a balding pirate with a zealot's focus but a rational game plan -- completed his Australian Open debut run with a flourish, winning his second consecutive Grand Slam tournament and dethroning the top-ranked Pete Sampras at the same time.In scoring a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory, the second-ranked Agassi performed the same baseline pyrotechnics that had hurtled him into the final without dropping a set.His return of serve proved to be more than twice as reliable as that of Sampras'; he committed half the number of unforced mistakes made by the world's No. 1 player and he contributed 10 aces of his own, the last on match point.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Roger Federer is chasing history and closing in quick. Rafael Nadal is chasing Federer. Top seed Federer won his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title by beating No. 2 Nadal yesterday, 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-3, in 2 hours, 50 minutes. Already here at the world's most beloved tennis tournament, Federer is being compared to the greats. He is the third man in the Open era to win at least four straight Wimbledon titles. Bjorn Borg, who won five straight from 1976 to 1980, and Pete Sampras, who won four straight from 1997 to 2000, were the others.

NEW YORK -- Pete Sampras met the wall of exhaustion at the U.S. Open yesterday and played on.He played with a tightening back and blistered, peeling feet. And he played through a blur of exhaustion, in which every point he missed was like a kick to his stomach.The man often described as colorless and bland, played with a passion that inspired cheers of "Pete! Pete! Pete!" to ring in his ears.And in the fifth set, with Jaime Yzaga up 5-3 and within two points of victory, he played on pure guts, a crowd's insistence and his own true grit.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Germany's Karsten Braasch is not the kind of guy you want to face on a tennis court.He looks like he should be batting cleanup for a beer league softball team. He wears goggles. He has a beard. And then, there is his serve. It's not just ugly, it's confusing.Oh, and he's a lefty.That's why it wasn't all that surprising yesterday when Pete Sampras began defense of his Wimbledon men's title by struggling against Braasch on Centre Court. Eventually, Sampras squeezed out a 7-6 (7-4)

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Pete Sampras, mixing powerful serves with delicate passing shots, beat Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), in the ATP Tour World Championships yesterday.Ivan Lendl beat Jim Courier, 6-2, 6-3, to go 2-0 in the event and virtually assure a spot in the last four. Courier, the top seed and the No. 2 in the world, dropped to 1-1.Guy Forget beat Karel Novacek, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), to maintain his chances of reaching the semifinals.The $2.25 million year-end event pits the top eight players in the world.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Anyone coming to Wimbledon's men's semifinals to see tennis yesterday left unfulfilled.Wham! Slam!That was No. 1 seed and defending champion Pete Sampras moving into the Wimbledon final with a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, victory over fellow big-server Todd Martin, and sending many of the 13,000 fans at Centre Court charging to the exits in search of an adrenalin rush.Wham! Bam! Slam!That was No. 4 seed Goran Ivanisevic joining Sampras in the finals with a 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory over Boris "The Gamesmanship King" Becker.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Goran Ivanisevic is the one who still wants to join the club.He hits aces. He wins matches. But he hasn't yet won Wimbledon or earned respect.Today, though, he's the wild card in the men's semifinals at Wimbledon. All the glamour is centered on the match involving ex-champs Andre Agassi and Boris Becker.But all the grit and muck of modern men's tennis will be featured in the Ivanisevic-Pete Sampras duel. This is two serves and a cloud of dust tennis. Sampras is the two-time reigning champion.

PARIS -- There he was, center stage at the French Open for the first time in his career, and Pete Sampras was feeling nothing but disenchantment. He didn't like his draw, which paired him against a player who charges around clay courts like a bulldozer.He didn't like the surface, which retards his turbo-driven serves and volleys. He didn't like his grip or the tension in his racket, three of which he broke trying to fight his way out of a predicament he especially disliked, a two-set deficit that appeared to leave him at the questionable mercy of Austria's Thomas Muster.

NEW YORK - Pete Sampras controlled many opposing players during his career, but last night, the man so many said never showed emotion, could neither control his face nor hide the depth of his feelings. He came to Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open to make his retirement official and say a final farewell. Before he could say a word, his face began to tremble and tears came. He raised a hand to brush them away. The smile returned when he saw a picture of his wife and son on the big overhead screen.

WIMBLEDON, England - Greg Rusedski's profanity-laced outburst and subsequent implosion in the Andy Roddick match earned a relatively small $2,500 fine from Wimbledon officials. He has probably also earned a lifetime's worth of bad publicity in this country, though he was never much in favor with Britain's cricket crowd, anyway. Rusedski is a footballer's guy, a rough-and-tumble counterpoint to Tim Henman, who is the cricket fan's hero with his perfect attire, always neat hair and impeccable manners.

LOS ANGELES - Pete Sampras, whose status as a tennis legend is best represented by his record 14 major titles, has likely played his last competitive match. Through his coach, Paul Annacone, Sampras withdrew yesterday from three tournaments that were holding entry spots for him. One was Wimbledon. "Yes, for me not to be at Wimbledon, I guess that's big," Sampras said from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. Seven of Sampras' 14 Grand Slam event titles came on the grass of Wimbledon, where, in 2000, he beat Australian Patrick Rafter in the final.

NEW YORK - These are times when familiar things, rituals, are in order, particularly here, where, over the next three painful days, the anniversary of Sept. 11 will be commemorated. The U.S. Open's grand finale supplied a small, comforting dose. After all, what could be more familiar than the sight of Pete Sampras, 31, ambling slump-shouldered across center court? What could be more familiar than Sampras gunning 129-mph aces into the green concrete, dropping delicate touch volleys over the net for whisper winners or slicing that lethal, one-hand backhand crosscourt, into the night, out of reach?

NEW YORK - The criticism can stop now. Pete Sampras - who had dropped to the No. 17 seed, who had heard his play criticized, who had heard opposing players say he wasn't the player he used to be and should retire - that Pete Sampras won the U.S. Open yesterday. That Pete Sampras hit 84 winners. That Pete Sampras hit 33 aces. That Pete Sampras, 31, beat age-old foe Andre Agassi, 32, decisively, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Then, in an uncharacteristic display of emotion, Sampras left the court to climb through the crowd at the USTA National Tennis Center, high-fiving fans, receiving pats on the back and congratulations all along the way, to reach his wife, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, who is pregnant with their first child.

NEW YORK - Almost everyone acknowledges that center court at the U.S. Open is Pete Sampras' house. Yesterday, Sjeng Schalken tried to sneak in a back window, only to find Sampras nailing shut every opening at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Bang, bang, bang went his racket. Ace, ace, ace. Twenty-three of them. Pump, pump, pump went Sampras' fist. And into the U.S. Open final for the third straight year and eighth time in his career went Sampras with a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory. From the first day Sampras arrived here, he said he could make it to this final, and play well enough to win one more title.

PARIS -- The court was drenched in bright sunlight, not fog, but Pete Sampras looked like a vessel meandering and eventually marooned without radar.The defending U.S. Open champion slouched, stumbled, and blundered his way to a 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 loss to Thierry Champion of France in the second round of the French Open.Sampras, with a serve that had "no snap" and feet that seemed to sprout roots into the clay, later said his dramatic revival from a two-set deficit against Thomas Muster on Tuesday left him with a body that refused to move yesterday.

NEW YORK - Look what tennis pulled out of its duffel bag: Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, together again. A showdown between two old friends and rivals that serves up nostalgia and anticipation as well as anything under the bright lights of Broadway. Maybe better than Broadway, since this two-man revival is playing in Queens, a louder borough where tennis fans live to show love for the old guys, particularly Americans who refuse to go gently into that good night. Just ask Jimmy Connors.

NEW YORK - If today's semifinals are all about confidence, as No. 17 seed Pete Sampras says, he should be in pretty good shape to reach his eighth U.S. Open final. Sampras is the cagey veteran who will meet unexpected contender Sjeng Schalken, the No. 24 seed, in the first half of the men's semifinals today. No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and No. 6 Andre Agassi will slug it out in the second semifinal to determine the finalists. But it is Sampras who has again defied the odds and confounded his critics by becoming competitive once more in the pursuit of a Grand Slam title.