Sampras Has It Easy Until After Match

By LISA DILLMAN

July 28, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The 54 minutes Pete Sampras spent on the court against 17-year-old Phillip King of Long Beach probably went a lot faster than the second-seeded player’s time--or make that sentence?--in the interview room on Tuesday at the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA.

Much to his chagrin, the majority of the questions weren’t about his easy 6-1, 6-2 first-round victory over King, who made his ATP tour debut. Nor was there talk about his buddy, third-seeded Tim Henman, who surprisingly lost, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), to Guillaume Raoux of France earlier in the day.

Not when the new No. 1, Patrick Rafter, was lobbing a few verbal grenades from his beachside home in Bermuda. The Rafter-Sampras rivalry turned testy last summer after Rafter beat Sampras in a controversial match at Cincinnati. From his lofty perch of No. 1, Rafter finally felt comfortable enough to truly unload, making front-page news in his native Australia.

A sampling from the conference call on Monday:

“He [Sampras] really does say some funny things at the wrong time,” Rafter said. “We are out there busting our guts and he doesn’t show a lot of respect at the end of the day. He tries to play down the reason why he lost, giving no respect to the other player and that is what really upsets me about him and the reason I try to piss him off as much as I can.”

Rafter, the two-time defending U.S. Open champion, has defeated Sampras three consecutive times, including the U.S. Open semifinals, in which Sampras was treated for a leg injury.

And Rafter questioned that too.

“You never quite know with Pete,” he said. “He seemed to have strained a thigh muscle, but then he came out and did some pretty extraordinary things. I can’t really talk on how he was feeling. But every time he did move, and move very quickly. I was very annoyed by that.”

He voiced satisfaction at his recent run of success against Sampras.

“It’s always nice to beat Pete whether it’s on the court or whether it’s the ranking thing or whether it is in Davis Cup,” Rafter said. “I get an incredible amount of enjoyment from being on top of him and pretty well just annoying him.”

Well, Rafter certainly accomplished that when his remarks were relayed to Sampras after the King match.

He looked surprised and irritated.

“Obviously I was very upset after the match [last summer], and said a few things, got a little caught up in the situation,” Sampras said. “He didn’t like it. I don’t have a problem with Pat. He’s a straighforward guy and I get along with him fine. If he has a problem with me, he can sit down and talk to me about it.”

Sampras said he was surprised by Rafter’s comments.

“A little bit,” he said. “If someone on the tour has a problem with me, I’m in the locker room all the time. He can tell me what he thinks. I’m not going to get into a media war with Pat. It makes no sense. I’m sure you guys want to build it up to something it’s not. It’s really not a big deal.”

Sampras said he feels as though he does give the proper amount of credit to his opponents, saying: “If I feel like I got beat, I’m going to tell you guys,” he said. “If someone outplays me, I say it.”

So, is he looking forward to his next match against Rafter?

“You guys have a little too much free time on your hands,” Sampras said.

King was more respectful. Sampras had six aces and faced only two break points, both in the final game.

In a late match, Andre Agassi defeated Jan-Michael Gambill, 6-2, 6-2.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Mercedes-Benz Cup at a Glance

STADIUM COURT

Matches begin at 11 a.m.

* Thomas Enqvist vs. James Sekulov

* Wayne Ferreira vs. Justin Gimbelstob

* Michael Chang vs. Guillaume Raoux

Matches begin at 7:30 p.m.