Seems Pete’s Still the One to Beat

The routine is becoming a routine.

Pete Sampras arrives at Wimbledon with one, maybe two titles, looking vulnerable after the French Open. Maybe he’s feeling a little less than invincible, a few aches and pains, and a back twinge after slipping and falling on the grass Friday.

A metaphor for his record pursuit at Wimbledon, perhaps?

But just when you have heard the early spin--maybe Sampras won’t win Wimbledon this year-- there is an obvious question.

If he doesn’t win, who will?

Really, his chances of winning a seventh Wimbledon and record-setting 13th Grand Slam singles title look much better when you try to assess who is playing well enough to win seven matches at the All England Club.

Sampras generously says there are about seven or eight players who could contend on the grass and mentions the usual suspects, his good friend Tim Henman of Great Britain, 1999 finalist Andre Agassi, Mark Philippoussis of Australia, Greg Rusedski of Great Britain, Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, Magnus Norman of Sweden and 19-year-old Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Fair enough.

But Henman’s grass-court season has been a disaster, luckily, for him, overshadowed by England’s soccer pratfall in Euro 2000. He lost to qualifier Bob Bryan at Queen’s Club and to Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden last week at Nottingham. Bjorkman has won only three singles matches at Wimbledon since 1995.

And speaking of luck, at least Greg had Tim. Rusedski’s serving struggles in London--culminating in a three-set loss to Marat Safin of Russia in the third round--were greatly overshadowed by Henman’s travails.

Norman pulled out of Queen’s because of an injury. Kuerten celebrated his French Open title at home in Brazil and begged officials not to give him a parade, and the injury-prone Agassi seems in danger of another downward slide.

Philippoussis and the former Wimbledon champion, Krajicek, didn’t build much momentum as Philippoussis lost to Goran Ivanisevic in London and Krajicek lost to Martin Damm last week in the Netherlands.

Which brings us to the Australian player Sampras didn’t mention, Patrick Rafter, and the one he praised so highly (Hewitt) after losing to him in the final at Queen’s. Even before going out to Hewitt, 6-4, 6-4, Sampras compared him to Michael Chang in terms of quickness and drive to win.

Hewitt is precocious. At 19, he has won four titles in 2000, making him the first teenager to do so since Sampras in 1990. In 1990, Sampras won indoors at Philadelphia, on grass in Manchester, the U.S. Open and the Grand Slam Cup.

This year, Hewitt won successive tournaments at Adelaide and Sydney in January and at Scottsdale in March. All three events were on hard courts outdoors. Still, he has played only once at Wimbledon, feeling the nerves on a big occasion, losing to Boris Becker in the third round last year.

Then there is the most natural serve-and-volley artist of the Aussies, Rafter. The two-time U.S. Open champion has slowly crept back after his long rehab after shoulder surgery late last year.

He has been aided by the wit and wisdom of coach Tony Roche during the grass-court season and it has been paying off this week in the Netherlands. Rafter is close to winning his first tournament in a year, is seeded 12th at Wimbledon and has a decent draw, playing Jamie Delgado of Britain in the first round. In his quarter of the draw are fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and No. 13 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany.

Pulling out of Wimbledon because of injuries are Magnus Larsson, Marcelo Rios and Daniel Vacek, and they could be joined by three top Spaniards, Alex Corretja, Albert Costa and youngster Juan Carlos Ferrero, who have threatened a boycott because they are not seeded.

Costa’s agent said the three are upset that they are required by the ATP to play Wimbledon, but their ranking is not protected. Wimbledon, unlike the other three Grand Slam events, does not follow the Entry System rankings. All three players would be seeded at any other Slam.

But Costa is 2-4 at Wimbledon in four appearances, and Corretja is 2-3. Corretja has skipped three of the last six Wimbledons. Ferrero, 20, has not played Wimbledon and withdrew Saturday because of a lower back injury.

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The buzz about the threatened Spanish boycott has replaced, for the moment, the usual talk about the women possibly skipping Wimbledon over the issue of equal prize money. Well, at least until the first news conference Monday.

One thing appears to be an equal-opportunity issue on the tour: Grass-court momentum, it seems, has been hard to generate on the women’s side too. Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland, a distraught first-round loser last year, probably won’t encounter a similar exit this time, but she has both Williams sisters--No. 5 Venus and No. 8 Serena--in her half of the draw.

Hingis, who won Wimbledon three years ago, may be able to beat one of the Williamses. She has not been able to beat them both in the same tournament, most notably at the U.S. Open last year. This might be her best opportunity. Venus’ powerful serve has been missing, and Serena has been missing, out since the beginning of the clay-court season because of an injured knee.

Life at the other end of the draw has not been smooth for the defending champion, second-seeded Lindsay Davenport. Davenport, who plays her doubles partner, Corina Morariu, in the first round, has lost twice to Dominique Van Roost of Belgium in the last month. The first time was at the French Open in the first round, as Davenport, still ailing from a lower back injury, struggled on her least favorite surface, clay.

Last week, Davenport was healthy but lost to Van Roost on grass at Eastbourne, England. Van Roost noticed Davenport is lacking confidence, and they could meet in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

There have been four women’s champions the last four years: Davenport, Jana Novotna, Hingis and Steffi Graf. One other former champion, Conchita Martinez of Spain, is seeded fourth but has lost in the third round the last three years.

French Open champion Mary Pierce of France is seeded third, and is in the same half of the draw as Davenport and No. 6 Monica Seles. Pierce has never advanced past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and lost to Jelena Dokic of Australia in the fourth round last year.

She did not play in either of the two grass-court tuneup events in England but appeared at an exhibition in the United States against Mary Joe Fernandez. It doesn’t seem like the ideal preparation, but then again, Pierce lost to the little-known Italian Germana Di Natale in Madrid and went on to win in Paris a couple of weeks later.