It’s Nice to See Him Finish First

I was sitting in front of my television set Sunday, openly cheering for Michael Chang to win the U.S. Open tennis championship. Then something finally got through my thick skull.

How could I not cheer for Pete Sampras?

In this world of negativity and sarcasm, I am pleased that someone such as Sampras exists, because the worst thing that anybody can say about Pete is that his tennis balls are fuzzy.

Sampras is everything I ever wanted in an athlete. He plays hard. He plays hurt. Best of all, he plays with respect for people other than his opponent. He doesn’t treat an umpire like dirt or tell the crowd to shut up. You don’t have to swing a racket for Pete Sampras to treat you like an equal.

I suppose that I cheered for Chang because he struck me as such an underdog, as a sentimental favorite, even though the fact of the matter is that Chang was the No. 2-seeded player in the tournament, and not some hack from the back of the pack.

Sampras versus Chang was a pure pleasure, a fight without villains. It was like watching two gentlemen duelists, choosing their weapons, except nobody got hurt.

I remember when Right Guard deodorant ran TV commercials starring Charles Barkley and Kirk Gibson as spokesmen on acting “civilized.” That is what often stinks about the advertising industry, that it treats the best those who smell the worst.

Sampras and Chang have every bit as much competitive fire as athletes who rant and rave and trample everyone in their path. This was obvious again in Sunday’s match, which was tennis minus the menace.

Neither player tried to act cool, or mug for the crowd, or strut like some hammy wide receiver who just scored a touchdown. The only difference between pro football and the circus these days is that the NFL has more clowns.

If you do root against Pete Sampras, it would be only because he is so good. When he starts whipping that 125-mph serve, you tend to root for any opponent who would have the audacity to return it.

Having Sampras serve a tennis ball to you is like having Randy Johnson pitch a baseball to you, but from 50 feet. I believe the only way I could ever return one of Pete’s serves is if Prince manufactured a racket with a 50-foot head. Sampras could probably ace me using a squash racket. He could probably ace me using a squash.

His straight-set victory over Chang was the result of what Sampras himself called “one of the best matches I played in my career,” which is an awe-inspiring description, considering his career.

Sampras stands a chance of going down in history as the greatest player of all time, despite all the gifted men who played this game before him. Five more years of this kind of play, Sampras could very well become the best there ever was.

I was thinking, mistakenly, that Sampras could afford to lose this U.S. Open, having had so many successes in the past, which was why my first instinct was to pull for Chang. I have been a fan of Chang’s ever since he turned poor Ivan Lendl inside-out at that French Open seven years ago, when he kept hitting those moon balls.

It never occurred to me that Sampras would have been 0 for 4 in his Grand Slam events this year if this U.S. Open got away from him. Pete Sampras is one of those guys I always presume won Wimbledon and the French Open and the Australian, even when he didn’t. That’s how good he is.

He played a match in last week’s quarterfinals against Alex Corretja that transcended tennis. If only a heavyweight boxing bout could provide the public with as much action, determination and guts as that Sampras-Corretja match did, the public wouldn’t want its money back after a Mike Tyson fight. I’d rather watch Tyson play tennis than fight Bruce Seldon again.

For anyone who cares to see a pro’s pro, Sampras is playing an exhibition Friday night at the Forum against the fine Wimbledon finalist, MaliVai Washington, another of the guys who has brought added class to pro tennis.

The next day, Sampras will be playing doubles with dozens of different partners, all of whom donated thousands of dollars that will go to a UCLA scholarship fund, just so they will know how it feels to play tennis with the best player in the world.

That’s the kind of guy Pete is, doing things for charity. My idea of charity would be Pete letting me win a point.