Moving Up a Class : Now a U.S. Open Champion, Sampras Aspires to Continue On in the Style of Laver and Rosewall

Pete Sampras got out of bed Monday morning and his right arm hurt, but not because he had slept on it wrong. When Sampras got up, he hadn’t slept at all.

“I couldn’t get any sleep because it’s still unreal,” Sampras said. “I don’t believe it still.”

Sampras’ right arm was bound to be sore--but “a good sore,” he said--after the way he had used it Sunday in defeating Andre Agassi, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, to become the youngest men’s singles champion in the U.S. Open’s 110-year history.

Only 28 days past his 19th birthday, Sampras blew 13 aces past Agassi and totaled an even 100 in the seven matches he won, a number that further tested his credulity.

“I don’t believe that either,” said Sampras, who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The morning after for Sampras began when he made the rounds of the three networks’ early morning shows to be interviewed live. He taped an interview for an evening network news show, then taped an appearance on Joan Rivers’ talk show, where he shared billing with a new contest in which viewers can win free plastic surgery.

After that, it was back to the hotel, pack and get to the airport for a flight to Amelia Island, Fla., and two days of playing golf undisturbed. Or so Sampras hoped.

“I just want to take the next couple of days and let it sink in,” he said.

It may take a while for others, too, especially Agassi, who lost his second Grand Slam final this year.

“If he can play that kind of tennis, he’ll beat everybody,” Agassi said. “The way he played, he should come back to Vegas with me and we’ll go to the casino.

“(But) who’s to say if it was just a good tournament or he’s really up there,” Agassi said.

Said Sampras: “Obviously there’s going to be a lot more pressure on me, (but) at age 19 I think I can handle that responsibility.”

Six feet tall and weighing 150 pounds, Sampras grew up idolizing Australian tennis great Rod Laver, although he never saw him play in person or on television.

Instead, Sampras spent hours viewing 16-millimeter film of Laver playing in the World Championship of Tennis events in Dallas in 1971 and 1972.

Watching with Sampras were the man who owned the tapes, Del Little, Sampras’ footwork coach at the time, and Sampras’ former coach, Dr. Pete Fischer.

“I’ve always looked up to the older guys like Laver and (Ken) Rosewall,” Sampras said. “I really enjoyed that era. I think that a lot of guys, especially my age, forget the Lavers and Rosewalls. All those were class individuals, and I would like to be in that category.”

Apparently, Agassi does not feel such a strong tug from his sport’s past. When Agassi accepted his French Open runner-up award at Roland Garros, he was told he had just stood next to septuagenarian Jean Borotra, one of France’s famed Three Musketeers of the 1920s and ‘30s.

“I didn’t know . . . he was just some old guy,” Agassi said.

Fischer, who parted with Sampras a year ago, knew the secret of his 14-year-old’s success lay in the old movies of Laver.

Fischer told the New York Times that he felt it vital for Sampras to learn to play tennis correctly and not just how to win matches.

“We watched Laver more than anyone,” Fischer said. “Laver had that kind of smooth motion. A round motion where the shoulders are moving and the hips are moving and everything was going up together and coming down and exploding.

“Laver had to explode to get the power he did, and Pete certainly explodes,” Fischer said.

It was Fischer, a pediatrician working at the Kaiser Foundation in Bellflower, who changed Sampras’ style into the powerful force that enabled him to win his first Grand Slam title.

Fischer adapted Sampras’ backhand from a two-handed ground stroke to one and also steered him into a serve-and-volley game instead of letting him counterpunch from the baseline.

The new game brought stirring changes in Sampras, but it took a while. Sampras said his calm on-court demeanor--John McEnroe called him cool as a cucumber--is an indirect effect of the serve-and-volley style.

“I really don’t know why I’m so laid back, (but) I think it’s because of the style of my game . . . very fluid and very easy to do,” Sampras said. “Ever since I changed my game, I’m just much more relaxed on the court.

“I don’t get too up-tight or anything. I’m just a normal 19-year-old growing up with a very unusual job and doing very unusual things.”

Sampras said he battled Fischer over the new style.

“There was a point when I was a junior where I wasn’t really improving as a tennis player,” Sampras said. “I had a weak serve, and I really couldn’t volley at all.

“I did poorly at a junior tournament. I got back and I had three months off, and Pete Fischer suggested that I switch to a one-handed backhand. I was completely against it from the first. And even after six months, I didn’t want to do it.

“But I stuck with it, and I made the Junior Davis Cup squad. A year later, I beat (Michael) Chang at the Junior (U.S.) Open, and the more I played, the more I won, the more confidence I have. I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that decision.”

Where he is, of course, is in the U.S. Open record books and walking--slowly, coolly--to the first tee.