Sampras: The King of Swing or Just King? : Wimbledon: He impresses royalty and retains his No. 1 ranking with victory over Courier--not a bad day’s work.

In front of the Royal Box, before the Princess of Wales and the Duke and Dutchess of Kent, Wimbledon crowned a new tennis champion Sunday when Pete Sampras took on a new title.

King of Swing?

Hey, anything’s possible here at sun-splashed Wimbledon, where the weather was as dry as the champagne they drowned each other in after the most extravagant tennis tournament in the world was claimed by the most basic of shots.

That would be the serve, the big serve, the Sampras serve, the one that the 21-year-old used to power-slam his way past Jim Courier and claim his second Grand Slam title.

A smashing success, this was Sampras. He knocked off Courier in four difficult sets, two tiebreakers, and one case of the “heavy” blues, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-3.

Sampras served 22 aces, much to the delight of Princess Diana, who sat in the Royal Box for the first time in the tournament. When it got tense, Sampras had Diana on the edge of her seat.

Sampras had another explanation.

“Maybe she has a crush on me,” he said.

So, in one sentence, Sampras ceased to become the most hated man in England, a position he had secured after he beat British player Andrew Foster and cursed the crowd afterward.

There had been more bad news. In a radio poll, Sampras finished last in a survey asking callers with which player they would like to share strawberries and cream.

But with the Dutchess of Kent in his corner and the Wimbledon trophy in his possession, Sampras is looking pretty good right now.

Not only did he take his first Grand Slam tournament title since 1990 (Wimbledon hardware looks so nice next to the U.S. Open trophy), but Sampras did something even more important.

He bagged the game’s biggest prize, cemented his hold on the No. 1 ranking, turned back Courier’s challenge and answered a lot of questions about whether he deserved to be listed as the top player in the world.

All in all, it was a pretty full day.

“There’s been a lot of controversy over the computer, how come I’m No. 1 (when) Jim was in the finals of the French and won the Australian,” Sampras said.

“He can’t take this title away from me and now I’m No. 1. . . . I don’t think there will be any more controversy.”

Actually, there were only a couple of points of controversy during the match, where break points were nearly as uncommon as dark clouds overhead.

Sampras claimed the first set in a tiebreaker, knocking a backhand passing shot down the line on the first break and slamming an ace for 4-2. He nailed a backhand volley to finish it in 49 minutes.

In the second set, Sampras was just as deadly on his serve, especially his second serve. Boris Becker, who lost to Sampras in the semifinals, said Sampras had no conscience on his second serve and Courier had just as much trouble with it as Becker did.

“If he starts hitting his second serve around 95 to 100 miles an hour, putting it in the corners, it’s pretty unstoppable,” Courier said.

The second set went the way of the first. Forced into another tiebreaker, Courier was actually sort of lucky. He was down break point at 4-5, but saved it with a ringing forehand into the corner and a second set point at 5-6 with an excellent backhand-lob winner.

It was Courier’s turn to see Sampras come back from the edge in the tiebreaker. Courier held set point, 6-5, but could only watch in disbelief when Sampras hit a shaky forehand volley that touched two lines in the corner to get even.

It probably was the shot of the match. It certainly was something else, Courier said.

“He hit a choker volley, but it went in,” Courier said. “It was definitely not a confident volley . . . but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Sampras admitted it was not the surest of shots he hit during the afternoon, but it fell on the court, so what else mattered?

“Winning the second set was huge,” Sampras said. “I knew Jim wasn’t going to give up after that.”

No he wasn’t. Courier picked up his game at the precise moment that Sampras began slumping. Sampras, who had not faced so much as a break point, dropped his serve twice. But that’s not all that was dropping.

During changeovers, Sampras put ice on the back of his neck and covered his head with a towel. He did knee bends before serving, but said he was not dehydrated.

“I wasn’t sick, but my shoulders were feeling a bit heavy,” he said. “I was kind of so high, then I went straight down.”

Courier broke Sampras for 5-3 with a backhand passing shot down the line, then finished the set with an ace and climbed back into the match.

He stayed there for a while.

“I still knew I had to break serve at least one time to get ahead of him and I couldn’t do it,” Courier said. “He was tired, but when you’re serving 120 and then 95 miles an hour on the second serve, you don’t have to move too much.”

Sampras lost six points on his serve in the fourth set. He got the only break he needed when he scored on a running forehand that he crushed into the corner, and Courier hit a backhand into the net.

That gave Sampras a service break and a 4-2 lead. All he needed to do was hold serve to win it. That’s all he did. He held for 5-2 with his final ace, saw Courier stay in the match at 5-3, then walked to the line to serve for the championship at 5:05 p.m. local time.

By then, the thoughts that were flying through Sampras’ mind were as fleeting as the clouds off in the distance . . . thoughts like losing the U.S. Open final last year to Stefan Edberg . . . thoughts like when he might win another Grand Slam event.

“There are some strange things going through your mind when you’re playing a final like this,” Sampras said. “The Open experience . . . it crossed my mind once or twice, but I tried to block it out as much as I could.”

Sampras slapped a forehand volley winner for 30-15 and found himself at match point when Courier dumped a backhand into the net.

Courier rallied, but briefly. He saved the first match point with a service return that melted at Sampras’ feet. But he would not escape again.

Courier knocked the serve back, but under pressure, sent a final backhand into the net and it was over.

Sampras looked as if he was in shock. He slumped into his chair to rest, then bounded out of it to raise his arms in triumph.

“The U.S. Open happened so fast that I never really had too much time to really think about what happened,” he said. “Now, you know, being a top player for the last couple of years, I can kind of appreciate what it takes to win a Grand Slam.

“In my mind, this is the biggest one in the world and now that I’ve done it, I feel as happy as I’ve ever felt.”

Wimbledon Notes

Martina Navratilova and Mark Woodforde won Sunday’s mixed doubles championship by beating Manon Bollegraf and Tom Njissen of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-4. It was Navratilova’s 18th Wimbledon title, putting her two behind all-time leader Billie Jean King. It was the first time that Navratilova and Woodforde, an Australian, have played as a team. They also plan to play together at the U.S. Open.