‘98 Wimbledon Champions Back to Their Roots

WIMBLEDON, England

Novotna made the Duchess of Kent look like a prophet when she won here last year, playing in her third final. She told Novotna the third time would be lucky, and the royal blessing took care of those famous Novotna jitters.

Sampras moved into royal company by winning his fifth Wimbledon singles crown and 11th Grand Slam title, pulling within one Slam championship of all-time leader Roy Emerson.

If 1998 enhanced the star qualities of Novotna and Sampras, then 1999 has been simply star-crossed for each. Novotna, 30, has won one title this year (at Hanover, Germany) and lost in the third round at the Australian Open and in the fourth round at the French Open. Further, she was dumped by doubles partner Martina Hingis, who reportedly called her “too old and slow.”

Then injury followed insult. Novotna went crashing into her new doubles partner, Natasha Zvereva, at the French Open and promptly sprained her right ankle and suffered ligament damage, leaving the court via wheelchair. The ankle is still tender and Novotna was unable to play singles at the grass-court tuneup event last week at Eastbourne, England.

Sampras, 27, has not suffered insult, but he has spent a fair part of the year injured. He hurt his back playing doubles in Barcelona with Tim Henman--is anyone getting the idea that doubles is becoming rather dangerous?--and he earlier suffered another injury, forcing him to pull out of his first event of the year, at San Jose.

Even at Queen’s Club in London earlier this month, Sampras tweaked his right shoulder in his match against Wayne Arthurs of Australia and needed treatment from the ATP trainer. Later, in the same event, he went tumbling to the grass. These days, you hold your breath when Sampras goes down, not that he’s as creaky as Patrick Ewing or anything.

Because of the injuries and his decision to skip the Australian Open, Sampras has played little this year, 22 matches. Twenty-something matches sound like a good month of work for a Spanish clay-courter, not half a year’s worth for the American. Sampras is 16-6 and his first title of 1999 came at Queen’s Club--a stirring three-set final against Henman that gave him some measure of confidence.

“I started off the year quite slow,” he said. “It’s a lack of matches. When you don’t play matches, you don’t have the confidence. This year I haven’t been in a great rhythm and it showed. There’s no question it showed. I’m trying to put what has happened this year behind me. Trying to forget about the six months and learn from it.”

MEN’S FAVORITES

1) Pete Sampras--One of the charming aspects about his title run the last two years was his actress girlfriend, Kimberly Williams, emoting from the Friends Box. That two-year relationship ended earlier this year, but Sampras has hardly had an Andre Agassi-like rejuvenation.

If anything, the circumstances are quite close to last year’s scenario. In 1998, Sampras arrived at the All England Club with two titles. Last year, he lost the No. 1 ranking, briefly, to Marcelo Rios. This year, he comes here with one title and two other players took the top spot from him in 1999, Carlos Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, before Sampras got it back a week ago.

Although he is guaranteed to tie Ivan Lendl’s record of 270 weeks at No. 1, he is thinking of a singular goal, not a career milestone, this fortnight.

“It’s our biggest tournament we have in the game,” said Sampras, who opens his title defense today against Australian Scott Draper.

“It’s our Super Bowl. And if you can’t get up for that, there’s no reason you should be playing.”

2) Richard Krajicek--He knows Sampras. He has beaten Sampras. Sampras does not scare him.

Which is why it was a beneficial development for Sampras when Krajicek landed in the other half of the draw. They could only meet in the final. Residing in his quarter of the draw is reigning French Open champion Andre Agassi.

3) Tim and Greg--Or is that Greg and Tim? The two Brits, Henman and Rusedski, are like the new Austin Powers movie . . . you can’t get away from them here. Henman, a semifinalist last year, is seeded sixth and could face Sampras again in the semifinals.

Rusedski has not played well so far on grass in ’99. Frenchman Cedric Pioline declared he would beat Rusedski at Nottingham and promptly followed through on the boast.

4) Patrick Rafter--On the eve of Wimbledon, he was nowhere near the place, finishing off a rain-marred event in the Netherlands. Rafter had to wait out a five-hour weather delay Sunday before defeating Andrei Pavel of Romania in the final. Australian legend John Newcombe has a sense that Rafter will win Wimbledon this year, saying Rafter’s problems on grass are mainly mental.

5) Andre Agassi--He remade his career, and reshaped men’s tennis--again--with his unexpected victory at the French Open.

Now, Agassi will attempt to become the 10th player to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. That double has been achieved 13 times, three times by Bjorn Borg, the last player to complete the feat, in 1980.

WOMEN’S FAVORITES

1) Steffi Graf--Now that Graf has announced the French Open was her final appearance at Roland Garros, naturally there is speculation this could be her last turn on the grass at Wimbledon. It’s hard to think what would be more riveting: A Graf-Hingis final, a rematch of their French Open final? Or Graf and her new mixed doubles partner John McEnroe playing anyone, on any court?

2) Martina Hingis--The spin-control exercise at Eastbourne, a charm session with the English scribes, only went so far. She promised that her petulant, childlike behavior at the French Open would not happen again at Wimbledon.

But Novotna’s coach Hana Mandlikova was not impressed and wanted punishment. “Her behavior was disrespectful to everyone who has ever won a Grand Slam,” Mandlikova told the Sunday Mail. “She should have been banned from playing Wimbledon.”

3) Venus Williams--The best thing about Hingis’ recent explosion is that Williams’ meltdown over line calls against Novotna last year has been long forgotten.

Williams could have played her younger sister Serena in the round of 16, but that became moot when Serena withdrew from Wimbledon last week because of flu. Venus Williams turned 19 last week and is a much more composed, experienced player but remains waiting for her Grand Slam breakthrough. The French Open produced her first setback in quite a while, a fourth-round loss to qualifier Barbara Schwartz of Austria. It was the first time since Wimbledon in 1997 that she failed to reach at least the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event.

4) Jana Novotna--Ailing ankle and all, Novotna still knows her way around a grass court. Since 1992, she has not lost before the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Novotna will open her title defense Tuesday against Shi-Ting Wang of Taipei. It gets tougher after that. She could play Cara Black of Zimbabwe, a solid grass-court player, in the second round and possibly Zvereva in the fourth.

5) Nathalie Tauziat--The sunglasses-loving Zvereva could easily be a fifth contender, especially after her dramatic comeback against Tauziat in the final at Eastbourne, rallying after losing the first nine games. But Zvereva could run into Novotna in the round of 16, whereas the seeded players in Tauziat’s quarter are Dominique Van Roost, Sandrine Testud and Monica Seles, not exactly grass-court specialists.

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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS / WIMBLEDON

Today through July 4

*

THE SEEDINGS

With tour rankings

MEN

No. Player Rank

1. Pete Sampras: 1

2. Patrick Rafter: 2

3. Yevgeny Kafelnikov: 3

4. Andre Agassi: 4

5. Richard Krajicek: 5

6. Tim Henman: 6

7. Mark Philippoussis: 11

8. Todd Martin: 12

9. Greg Rusedski: 13

10. Goran Ivanisevic: 15

11. Gustavo Kuerten: 7

12. Carlos Moya: 10

13. Karol Kucera: 14

14. Tommy Haas: 17

15. Nicolas Kiefer: 18

16. Felix Mantilla: 16

WOMEN

No. PlayerRank

1. Martina Hingis: 1

2. Steffi Graf: 3

3. Lindsay Davenport: 2

4. Monica Seles: 4

5. Jana Novotna: 5

6. Venus Williams: 6

7. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario: 7

8. Nathalie Tauziat: 9

9. Mary Pierce: 8

10. *Serena Williams: 10

11. Julie Halard-Decugis: 11

12. Amanda Coetzer: 12

13. Sandrine Testud: 13

14. Barbara Schett: 14

15. Dominique Van Roost: 16

16. Natasha Zvereva: 17

* Withdrew; replaced by Anna Kournikova, who is seeded 17th.

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TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

MEN

* Pete Sampras (1), Orlando, Fla., vs. Scott Draper, Australia

* Greg Rusedski (9), Britain, vs. Jason Stoltenberg, Australia

WOMEN

* Venus Williams (6), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., vs. Miriam Oremans, Netherlands

* Barbara Schwartz, Austria, vs. Anna Kournikova (17), Russia