Determination Lifts Sampras Over Agassi : Tennis: World No. 1 rebuffs No. 2 in final of Champions Cup.

Beneath Pete Sampras’ bony chest lies exactly the same thrumming engine that drives every other world-class professional athlete. Designed for competition and fueled by challenge, Sampras’ laconic on-court bearing never telegraphs the fact that it is his intent to figuratively beat the brains out of whoever is across the net.

Make no mistake, Sampras cherishes his No. 1 ranking and will defend it with all of his will against whoever dares challenge. As he did Monday afternoon against Andre Agassi at the Newsweek Champions Cup.

Sampras defeated Agassi, 7-5, 6-3, 7-5, but he did not diminish him. Monday’s final was a signal that the battle was joined but not wholly won; this is a skirmish that will flare up in the coming weeks and months at sites around the world.

As ever, Sampras wielded his serve as a weapon and even Agassi, the tour’s most accomplished service returner, could do little to blunt it. Sampras won 85% of his first-serve points and held 10,219 at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort spellbound as he served 18 aces. Agassi had allowed an average of only five aces per match going into the final.

“If there was one shot that did it for me, it was my serve,” Sampras said. “I kind of lived and died by it and served a lot of huge serves at 15-30, 30-all. That was really the difference.”

It was a redemptive victory for Sampras, whose win here last year was his third of the season. This is Sampras’ first title of the year, while Agassi has started sensationally. Before Monday, Agassi had lost only one match during the year and had not lost a set during the tournament.

Further whetting the rivalry, it was Agassi who defeated Sampras in this year’s Australian Open final, officially launching his quest for the No. 1 ranking.

Had Agassi won he wouldn’t have overtaken Sampras, but maneuvered to a delicate place in the rankings where Sampras would have felt Agassi’s breath on his neck.

Sampras, in his public pronouncements praising Agassi, has been far too polite to allow a glimpse of it, but on Monday pride peeked from behind his curtain of manners and shook its fist.

Sampras, in deed if not word, made it clear that he values his place in tennis’ hierarchy.

“I definitely care very much, there is no doubt about it,” Sampras said. “I see Andre, who has won the last two major titles and that is a pretty good indication that if you win the majors, you deserve (the No. 1 ranking). I’m not saying I’m going to give it over that easily, we will see what transpires in the next three, four months. It is a better indication, in my mind, who is No. 1 at the end of the year.”

Sampras began the match on an inauspicious note, double-faulting on the first point. It was an error he repeated only five more times. Sampras righted himself and offered an indicator of the match’s tone when he serve an ace to win the first game.

Agassi broke first, in the fifth game to go up 3-2, but Sampras broke back in the next game. Sampras had two set points against Agassi in the 10th game but Sampras could not manage the break for two more games.

The second set had fewer of the unforced errors the first had held. As shadows grew long and the lights kicked in, both players said they had difficulty seeing the ball.

Sampras needed only one break to win the second set, in the fourth game. He employed an uncharacteristic baseline style, perhaps in order not to provide Agassi a target at the net, which he loves. The match was 25 minutes old before Sampras made his first foray away from the baseline.

Both players relished the punishing pace of play, each managing to conjure up ever-more impossible angles and speeds.

In the final set, both players held serve until the single break, with Agassi serving at 5-5. Agassi succumbed to Sampras’ intense pressure and lost his serve.

Sampras closed out the set with emphasis, firing a 125-m.p.h. service winner to get to match point and an ace to win.

* IN BLOOM

The rivalry between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi figures to be played out in many a tournament final as the Americans battle to be No. 1 in the world. C8