Awesome Agassi Deals Sampras a Major Blow

By BILL DWYRE

Jan. 28, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES SPORTS EDITOR

MELBOURNE, Australia —

While most of America slept in the early hours of Thursday, the Rembrandt and Picasso of the tennis world painted a masterpiece on center court at the Australian Open.

Eventually, after 2 hours 55 minutes of indescribable theater, in front of a capacity house of 15,033 at Rod Laver Arena and several million more watching on television around the world, Andre Agassi won out over Pete Sampras.

The score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (0), 7-6 (5), 6-1, and if that sounds like an epic match, it’s because it was. So much happened that a book could be written about it, but the book would only be accurate if it flooded the reader with superlatives.

This was one men’s semifinal of the first Grand Slam event of 2000. But it matched the two best players in the world a round earlier than it should have, that seeding precipitated by an injury to Sampras late last season that kept him out of the U.S. Open and away from enough tournaments to have his ranking slip to No. 3, two notches below Agassi’s. The current No. 2, Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, is the first to admit that he is misplaced. “The real Nos. 1 and 2 are Agassi and Sampras,” he said here the other day.

There was history to be served.

If Sampras won, he would be one victory from topping the all-time record he shares with Roy Emerson of Australia with 12 titles in Grand Slam events. If Agassi won, he would become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to make the final of four straight Grand Slam events.

So, from the first day of the tournament, Jan. 17, a Sampras-Agassi matchup has had the blood boiling in tennis fans. The two had met 28 times previously, and a number of those head-to-head meetings left spectators shaking their heads in amazement. So, match No. 29, on the high-profile stage of a Grand Slam event, had breathtaking potential.

And, as it turned out, breathtaking results.

Sampras, probably the best server in the history of the game, hit 37 aces, made 86 winners (including those on his serve) and approached the net 122 times for 71 of his total of 149 points.

And he lost.

Agassi, probably the best returner of serve in the history of the game, managed three break points out of 13 tries against somebody hitting second serves at him at an average of 115 mph, made only 19 unforced errors and had 52 winners, most of them off ground strokes rather than serves. Yet he protected his serve so well that only once, in nine tries, could Sampras break his serve.

They began shortly after 7 p.m., on a day that had begun rainy and chilly and had turned, in late afternoon, into a bright and warm Australian day. The Laver Arena, named only 12 days ago for the legendary left-hander who now makes his home in Rancho Mirage, was overflowing. The capacity is listed at 15,021, but they managed to officially squeeze 12 more people in somewhere.

Especially crowded was the seating reserved for other tournament players, an area that is usually scattered with many empty seats, since pro tennis players, no matter what they say, seldom care at all about other players’ matches. Not so Thursday night. The players’ section was a virtual Who’s Who of international tennis names and faces.

As the match and the night progressed, dark clouds blew over and an increasingly cold wind swirled down through the opening in the roof and into the arena. Like the weather of the day, the dress in the crowd varied from T-shirts and Bermuda shorts to one woman dressed in a wool stocking cap and mittens. She, as it turned out, was the smartest of all.

Agassi even commented on the weather afterward, saying he had especially felt the cold.

“When a guy hits you with 37 aces,” he said, “you are not moving around for periods of time out there, except for your neck.”

After surviving three break points in the fourth game of the match, Agassi got a service break later in the first set and won it in 30 minutes. Sampras cracked a deep forehand for a break in the fourth game of the second set and won it in 29 minutes.

Then, like a couple of prize fighters who had done their early-round jabbing and dancing, they tightened their belts and got it on. And exactly an hour and a half into the match, they were still tied at one set each and 5-5.

The trends were clear, as clear as the respective style of each player.

Every time Sampras got in the least bit of trouble on his serve, he would toe the line and crank in an ace or a virtually untouchable serve that had the entire stadium oohing and ahhing. On many of Sampras’ service rockets, there seemed to be no time for a receiver to even twitch, much less return the ball in the court. But not only did Agassi twitch, he actually managed to get three break-point opportunities, each of which, of course, were followed by untouchable rockets.

Agassi, instead of being disheartened, kept chipping back, slapping his ground strokes in one corner and then the other. He was the classic counterpuncher, the middleweight taking on Joe Louis, circling and jabbing.

“I do go out with the anticipation of getting aced a lot by Pete,” Agassi said. “I’m not concerned about how many times he holds at 40-love. I’m worried about what chances I get and what I do with those chances. Him acing me was not so much a concern as getting the break points and not converting them. That can get discouraging.”

So can losing a third-set tiebreaker, 7-0, which is what Agassi did.

“He hit aces on the line, winners on the line, five winners,” Agassi said. “I was a spectator in that tiebreaker. There were ten thousand and one people out there watching him play that tiebreaker.”

The fourth set turned the match. And it turned in a matter of seconds. It too was decided by a tiebreaker. Yet this time, Agassi was able to do more than just watch. A great deal more.

Sampras reached his ultimate moment at 4-4 of the tiebreaker, a moment that left the crowd buzzing in utter disbelief. He missed a first serve, but hit his second 200 kilometers per hour, or right around 125 mph. That’s right, his second serve. There are only a handful of people on the face of the earth, all certainly on the ATP Tour, who have ever hit one that fast, in practice or whenever, much less in a fourth-set tiebreaker of a Grand Slam semifinal where everything is on the line and Emerson’s record is one match away. The only sad thing is that the moment came and went so fast that proper appreciation may have been lost on some people.

That put Sampras two points from the match at 5-4. All he needed was to win one point on one of Agassi’s next two serves and he could uncork one of his boomers and, pretty much, walk into history.

Sampras’ quarterfinal victim, Chris Woodruff, had said what nearly everybody else in tennis believed to be the case: “If Pete beats Agassi in the semifinal, he’ll win the tournament.”

Two points remained, two points from likely history. There was nothing standing in Sampras’ way except the squat little guy with the fast hands and the rock-solid game who runs hills near his home of Las Vegas to stay in shape.

Agassi hit a 111-mph service winner for 5-5. One point for history gone.

Then Agassi hit a first serve 122 mph! He can’t serve that big, but he did. And Sampras’ answer was a feeble return that settled gently into the net. Second point for history gone. Set point Agassi.

At 5-6, Sampras missed his first serve at 120 mph, then hit one 105 mph and followed it in. But it came back from Agassi faster than it had gone, and in a flash, Sampras’ shallow answering volley was pounced on and sent back cross court, like a low rocket, well beyond Sampras’ stretched forehand volley attempt.

Game Agassi. Set Agassi. And, as Sampras’ shoulders slumped and Agassi’s right fist pumped the air in celebration, match Agassi.

The fifth set turned out to be the only thing that kept this from being the consensus hands-down best-ever of the 29 matches between these two. Sampras, bothered by a sore right hip that forced him to bow out of the Davis Cup match against Zimbabwe next week, plus the stunning blow he had just received in the tiebreaker, went easily in the fifth, losing his first service game and appearing to go through the motions after that in a set that took only 22 minutes.

“I got a little down on myself,” Sampras said, “and he kind of just took advantage of it.”

Agassi closed it out with a service winner on match point and celebrated with his now ritualistic blowing of kisses to all four sides of the arena. Sampras packed his bag in seconds, and while the stadium announcer sought and received big applause for a tremendous effort from a tremendous athlete, Sampras left with nary a nod or a wave.

In the end, it had been a victory for Agassi’s pure, rock-hard work ethic and in-your-face determination over Sampras’ incredible athleticism.

Most likely, Agassi will get his sixth Grand Slam title here. Most likely, Sampras will get Emerson’s record, probably at Wimbledon.

And most likely, the level of Thursday night’s match, where the best played the best, was a work of art not to be seen again for many a year. Maybe ever.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

AGASSI vs. SAMPRAS

TIME OF MATCH

2 hrs. 55 min.

ACES

Agassi: 13

Sampras: 37

UNFORCED

ERRORS

Agassi: 19

Sampras: 56

POINTS WON