Sampras Doesn’t Lose His Grip

How often do you see Pete Sampras toss a racket?

Well, about as frequently as Michael Chang cracking a one-liner or Goran Ivanisevic being politically correct. Indeed, not often.

Sampras is certainly entitled to give in to a certain amount of frustration. His backhand was an adventure on Friday night against seventh-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden. If you charted the landing patterns of the backhand, there would be red spots all over the court.

But Norman was having his own problems. He was desperately looking for his lost confidence and it remained at large, as the fourth-seeded Sampras beat him, 7-5, 7-6 (4), in the quarterfinals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center.

In today’s semifinals, No. 3 Andre Agassi will play No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, and Sampras will face Xavier Malisse of Belgium. Malisse, who beat wild-card entrant Taylor Dent of Newport Beach, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, is the only unseeded and relatively unknown player among the final four.

Kuerten and Agassi had little trouble in their quarterfinal matches. Kuerten, who is on a 15-match winning streak, beat Tommy Haas of Germany, 6-3, 6-3, in 58 minutes, and Agassi continued his recent domination of Jan-Michael Gambill, winning, 6-2, 7-5, in 1 hour 23 minutes.

Agassi leads the series against Kuerten, 5-4. Three of their matches were last year, on a hard-court surface, and Kuerten took two of the three. Agassi, being an extremely smart man, has never played the three-time French Open champion on clay.

“Gustavo is playing some great tennis, no question,” Agassi said. “I’d rather be playing him here than on clay.”

Said Kuerten, who never faced a break point Friday: “Every time you play Andre and Pete, it’s tough because they’re the best tennis players. If you lose, it’s normal. If you win, it’s fantastic.”

Agassi is 7-2 against Gambill and has not lost a set to him in their last four matches. Gambill, a finalist here last year, served eight aces but double-faulted five times.

“Nobody can just go out there and trade blows with him,” said Gambill.

Agassi has been able to figure out how to dismantle Gambill’s game. Though Gambill reached the final at Miami, he has struggled in the majors, losing in the first round of all three Grand Slams in 2001.

“The problem with Jan-Michael’s game is (he hits) with two hands on both sides,” Agassi said.

That said, it makes it more difficult for Gambill when he changes surfaces and when conditions are imperfect.

Even the best conditions can produce erratic tennis, which is what happened in the night quarterfinal between Norman and Sampras.

Sampras had seven aces and eight double-faults. Norman had 11 aces but, like Sampras, also struggled with an errant backhand.

They stayed on serve until the final game of the first set. Sampras needed four set points to close it out. After his second set point, he bounced his racket and caught it, irritated when his forehand sailed just out.

In the second, Sampras and Norman traded breaks. Sampras wavered in the seventh game, losing his serve at 30. He tossed the racket after pushing a forehand half-volley long. But he got the break back later when Noman fell apart while serving for the set at 5-4.

Norman had a set point at 40-30 and promptly shanked an easy mid-court forehand long. His body language suggested he would not win another game but he pulled himself back together in the 12th game, saving three match points to get into the tiebreaker.

“He just didn’t play a good game,” Sampras said of the 5-4 juncture. “He gave it back to me a little bit.”

Sampras has won three tiebreakers in his last two matches, two against Chang, and he got ahead quickly against Norman, taking a 3-1 lead. Norman double-faulted to give Sampras a 4-2 lead, and with Sampras’ serve, that is obviously costly.

Several times during the match, Sampras stretched his legs. He was asked if he was hurting physically.

“I had a few tight spots, it’s something I’ve dealt with before,” he said. “I’ve kind of played through it. It’s not the way I want to hold my service games. I just didn’t have the rhythm on my serve. I had to stay back more and grind it out from the baseline. It wasn’t pretty. It was spotty for both of us.”

Norman, who has been suffering from a hip injury, agreed. But he took a positive approach.

“I feel better again,” he said. “It’s been a great week. It’s something to build on.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Featured Matches

1 P.M.

* Gustavo Kuerten vs. Andre Agassi

* Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan vs. Tommy Haas/Max Mirnyi

7 P.M.

* Pete Sampras vs. Xavier Malisse

* Jan-Michael Gambill/Andy Roddick vs. Sjeng Schalken/Daniel Vacek or Justin Gimelstob/Alex O’Brien