Sampras, Rafter Ice Wins Quickly

The gusting winds, the cold weather and Karol Kucera did little to slow top-seeded Pete Sampras in his quarterfinal match on Wednesday night at the U.S. Open.

He was so convincing in his 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory against the ninth-seeded Slovak, attention turned toward his next match, a long and winding search for a viable rival for Sampras.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Sampras will play third-seeded and defending champion Patrick Rafter of Australia. Rafter, similarly, was dominant in his quarterfinal victory as he defeated his doubles partner, 12th-seeded Jonas Bjorkman, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Rafter’s service was broken once. Sampras’ was broken twice. The last time Sampras played Kucera was when he lost to him at the Australian Open in the quarterfinals. So much is made of his rare losses that Sampras was being quizzed right away about losing to Rafter last month in Cincinnati. In that final, there was a controversial overrule against Sampras on match point.

“I don’t think he got under my skin,” said Sampras, who reacted with unusual anger about the disputed call. “The situation did. I just lost it for a minute. That’s fine. I’m glad I did it. It made me feel much better, trust me.

“Don’t worry. I won’t lose my control on Saturday. It’s not personal with Patrick. I get along well with him.”

Rafter thought he did get under the skin of Sampras.

“He’s a bit upset,” Rafter said. “I thought the ball was in. Some people have shown the replays for the ball to be in. I haven’t see him that mad about a call or anything. The whole thing was taken way out of whack.”

Notified that Rafter thought the ball was good, Sampras smiled, saying: “He’s smoking something that isn’t legal.”

That Sampras and Rafter both won their quarterfinal matches without dropping a set was remarkable considering the weather conditions. As soon as Sampras walked out on the court for the warmup, he knew it would be difficult.

“I feel I can play better, but I’m always very hard on myself,” he said. “With the wind gusting, I couldn’t even feel the racket in my hand in the third set, it was so cold. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. But this is the U.S. Open, this is a big moment of the year for me.

“I always remember my losses. He [Kucera] picked me apart in Australia. I was probably more on my toes. I knew he was playing well, beating Andre [Agassi] a couple of days ago.”

Rafter played during the day, so it was not as cold. But the winds were swirling all day, gusting up to 24 mph.

“I can’t play much better than that--just volleyed very well, served very well,” he said. “I could go on. It was a great day for me. I just handled the conditions really well today. I think that has to do with growing up playing in the wind, because where we live it gets very windy. I played there for a long time since I was young. I’ve learned how to deal with [the conditions].”

He did not plan on scouting the Sampras-Kucera match.

“I’m going to go out for dinner, out for a beer and relax and chill out,” Rafter said.

That’s another difference between Sampras and Rafter.

“Unfortunately, I don’t really like the taste of beer, so I’ll stick to the Evian here,” Sampras said, smiling.