TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker Gets Poor Service in First Loss to Sampras

Pete Sampras won the U.S. Hardcourts Championship Sunday, and it was mostly Boris Becker’s fault.

Becker, seeded No. 1 and the top-ranked player in the world, double-faulted 10 times, including three consecutive points in the decisive fourth game of the final set at Indianapolis.

Sampras, seeded fifth, said that was the difference in his 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-3 victory, the first time he has beaten Becker.

“The match was based on one game in the third set,” Sampras said. “We were even in the first and second sets.

“He played one bad game. He handed it to me, and I took advantage of it. Then I held serve and won the match.”

Becker, seeking his third U.S. Hardcourts title in four years, lost the first set on a 7-2 tiebreaker. Scolding himself and shouting in frustration throughout the second set, Becker broke service twice to even the match at one set apiece.

Both players held serve through the first three games of the third set, and Becker led, 15-0, with an ace serve before his string of faults turned the match to Sampras.

Becker, who had made a change of rackets, faulted on seven consecutive serves, then lost the game on the next point after hitting the ball into the net on Sampras’ return.

“I changed my racket, and the tension was much looser,” Becker said. “They brought out some new balls that were faster than the old ones. I figured it out after the first two double-faults. But after that, I had much fear, and that cost me the match.”

Petr Korda took advantage of weary and sick Goran Ivanisevic, pouncing on his weak second serves in the second set to take the Volvo International at New Haven, Conn., for his first tournament victory.

“I got lucky because Goran was tired,” Korda said after winning, 6-4, 6-2.

Korda had a brief scare. When he was leading, 5-2, with Ivanisevic serving, he stumbled into the net while hustling for a drop shot and aggravated a left ankle injury.

“All I thought is, ‘Come on, you have to keep playing,’ ” he said.

Korda continued and ran off four points in a row as he finished the tournament without losing a set.

Kristen Heinberg, 11, won the women’s open championship of the Mammoth Open, defeating defending champion Jennifer Slattery of Huntington Beach, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Heinberg, of Agoura Hills, is ranked eighth in California in the girls’ 14-and-under division.