Sampras Closes Out Arazi Indoors

The wind raged, thunder shook and rain pelted Melbourne Park today and sent the Australian Open running for cover. Meanwhile, inside, under the closed center-court roof, Pete Sampras was practically in a cardigan and slippers he was so cozy and at home.

When an outdoor hardcourt match is converted by rain to an indoor match, and when the match is in the fourth round of a Grand Slam event, there’s no one more relaxed and happy than Sampras, who believes he owns such situations.

“I don’t mind playing indoors,” Sampras said. “There’s no elements. There’s no sun. There’s no wind. There’s no rain. It’s pretty easy to play. I’ve played indoors here a couple of times. I’m pretty comfortable.”

There’s little evidence to the contrary. On a dreary and rainy day, Sampras advanced to the quarterfinal here, defeating a feisty Hicham Arazi of Morocco, 7-6 (11-9), 6-4, 6-4.

The two had never met and Sampras is always wary of opponents he’s never faced. With reason. The flashy Moroccan created dangerous left-handed shots and challenged Sampras in a way he had not been in the tournament.

But once the decision was made to close the court’s roof, creating ideal conditions for Sampras’ massive serve, little could be done to budge the top-seeded player out of his comfort zone.

Arazi, ranked No. 47, had faced Top 10 players and is as willing an opponent as there is, but he had never before faced Sampras. Arazi had only three break points and converted none.

“When I got into the court, I was hoping to make a surprise,” Arazi said, satisfied in the loss. “I do my best. He is just the No. 1. He was serving big and compared to the other players, it’s very difficult to see where he’s serving. He’s changing all the time. He’s serving hard and always in the right place and a good angle.”

Sampras had 24 aces and, to combat Arazi’s eagerness, he lifted his game from its torpor. Still, Sampras was only required to stay on court 2 hours 7 minutes, and has not yet been terribly inconvenienced on his way to defending his title.

The match provided spotty drama and stark contrast.

Arazi, who is fluent in five languages, was born in Casablanca, raised in France, coached in Italy and resides in Monte Carlo. He reads poetry to relax before matches. By contrast, Sampras, a high school dropout, was raised in Southern California and lives in Florida and sleeps to relax. Arazi is fiery while Sampras is . . . not.

Arazi battled and when he could get a bead on Sampras’ serve, he displayed a wicked backhand return. But the first-set tiebreaker held the match’s only suspense.

Sampras needed six set points to win the tiebreaker, and faced one. He handled his final set point in his usual manner, with an emphatic and unreturnable ace up the middle.

“I was really surprised,” Sampras said about Arazi. “He’s one of the quickest players I’ve ever seen. He’s up there with [Michael] Chang. He was getting to everything. We’d have long points, he’d really recover.”

Sampras is expected to play Petr Korda in the semifinals. The sixth-seeded Korda advanced with a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, victory over Cedric Pioline of France.

In the quarterfinals, Sampras will play the winner of the match between Karol Kucera of Slovakia and Richard Fromberg of Australia.

In a women’s fourth-round match, unseeded Venus Williams had little trouble with 15th-ranked Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, advancing to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win.

Williams’ next match will be the first in which she will meet a seeded player, No. 2-seeded Lindsay Davenport, who defeated 15th-seeded Ruxandra Dragomir, 6-0, 6-0. It is only the second time Williams has reached the quarterfinal of Grand Slam tournament.

She presumably will be tested and be forced to raise her game--in today’s match, Williams had only two more winners than unforced errors.