Sampras Again Can Forget Paris

He has this recurring dream: He gets closer and closer to the thing he covets and, just as it’s within his grasp, the thing is snatched away. When he wakes up, Pete Sampras is at the French Open.

It’s the same awful dream this year. Sampras has been spending his spring break as he has for the last six years--trying hard, then losing on the red clay courts at Roland Garros. It happened again Friday. Sampras was beaten in the semifinals by Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0, 6-2, but he was also felled by two weeks of too much tennis and a day of unbearable heat.

Kafelnikov will play Michael Stich of Germany in the men’s final Sunday. Stich defeated Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Sampras came to the French Open after a month layoff and having played only two clay-court matches, losing both. He was handed the most difficult draw on the men’s side--facing former champions Sergi Bruguera and Jim Courier--and played three five-set matches during a week of Paris’ heat wave.

Sampras, seeded first, began Friday’s early afternoon match having been on the court five hours more than Kafelnikov, seeded sixth. Kafelnikov appeared to have the energy reserves to better handle the heat.

After his loss, looking wan and dispirited, Sampras did not wish to excuse but to explain his lead-footed performance on center court. Sampras will be spending much more time trying to determine why--in a year that seemed to offer the holder of seven Grand Slam tournament titles his best chance--the French Open remains the only Grand Slam title he lacks.

“I was very tired,” he said. “Very, very tired today. After the first set, I just felt the balloon popped. The long matches over the past week and a half--I came in here not in the best shape.

“It’s so disappointing, because I fought so hard to get here. It was very hot today, and after the first set I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I was flat-out tired.”

Clay is an energy-sapping surface and, with his reserves already low, Sampras began the first set on the hottest day of the tournament. In fact, it was a record-setting day in Paris--the highest temperature on the day since 1873. The air temperature was 92 degrees and much hotter on court. Kafelnikov looked fresh and eager.

Sampras telegraphed his inconsistency on the first two points of the match, opening his service game with a double fault followed by an ace. Each player held serve and Sampras held a 4-2 lead in the tiebreaker, but Kafelnikov won five consecutive points to win the first set.

Sampras is known as a slow starter, but his body language during the changeover gave Kafelnikov great hope.

“He saw me getting tired and he started playing really well,” Sampras said. “His serve got a little better.”

Indeed, Sampras’ match statistics were the opposite of what he usually produces--he led in double faults, 9-2, and trailed in aces, with nine to Kafelnikov’s 12.

“I didn’t expect to serve that many aces,” Kafelnikov said. “Everybody knows how quick Pete is on the court. I think that something was happening to him today, for sure. That was not the Pete we are used to seeing on the court. After I won the first set, I noticed something might be happening with him.”

Sampras downplayed the effect of a strained back muscle, but his movement was limited and his serving motion appeared stiff.

The second set was a debacle for Sampras, and with each point gained, Kafelnikov grew more confident. Sampras won 10 points in the set. It was only the fifth time in his career that he lost a set 6-0.

The third set was a matter of Sampras merely hanging on. In the sixth game, Sampras managed two points against Kafelnikov’s serve, the most offense he had mustered in 16 games.

Sampras’ disappointment at losing was tempered by the knowledge he had improved his game on clay, that winning here is possible.

At the end of his news conference, Sampras began to speak of Wimbledon, which begins June 24, and his outlook brightened. The tournament he has won three years in a row and the surface he loves beckons.

“I’ve decided to go home tomorrow and put the racket up and not see a court, especially a clay court, for a while,” Sampras said, laughing. “[I’ll] get back to London over the weekend, walk into those gates at the All England Club, get those feelings and those good memories and hopefully I’ll come out ahead there.”