Agassi Restores Order

Thirteen trips to a Southern California desert tournament gets a guy thinking about his place in life, the pursuit of happiness and, well, the chase of a few remaining goals in sport.

Andre Agassi looked at the monument to tennis out here--a 16,071-seat facility--and took note of the crowded house, crafting his own description. “Absurd,” he said on Sunday.

But wasn’t the Theater of the Absurd a day earlier in the women’s final between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters?

No, Agassi wasn’t making a pejorative statement about the merits of the Tennis Garden. He loves the place. Yet he felt a bit disembodied when he pulled up for Sunday’s match against Pete Sampras in the Tennis Masters Series final.

Agassi’s sense of self returned by the time he took the court against his longtime rival Sampras. He survived a set point in the opening set, scrambled and fought through the second set, and, by the end Sampras was barely hanging on.

It took a little more than two hours for the fourth-seeded Agassi to prevail, 7-6 (5), 7-5, 6-1, in what was the pair’s 30th meeting and first in more than a year.

For Agassi, this was his first title at Indian Wells after twice losing in the final, to Sampras in 1995 and Stefan Edberg in 1990.

Eleven years between his first final here and his championship Sunday has created a clear sense of perspective, turning Agassi from a shallow teen to a Grand Slam winner to a thinking man’s baseliner who will turn 31 next month.

“It just feels incredibly surreal,” Agassi said. “When you pull up to a place where there’s 20,000 people, it feels incredibly. . . . I would say it feels separate. It feels like it’s not even you.”

Seeing the 29-year-old Sampras across the court solved that problem. They had not played since Agassi beat Sampras in a five-set semifinal at the 2000 Australian Open. Since then, Agassi has won two Australian Opens. Sampras has won two titles and the last one was at Wimbledon eight months ago.

“I’m feeling like Tiger Woods right now,” Sampras said. “It’s been six weeks since he won.”

No one had the heart to issue a Woods update, especially the way the third-seeded Sampras faded from sight in the third set, losing it in 29 minutes.

His chances were long gone. In the 10th game of the first set, he had a set point with Agassi serving at 4-5, but hit a forehand long after a rally. In the tiebreaker, Sampras hurt himself by double-faulting twice.

He had 14 aces, 11 double faults and 49 unforced errors. In contrast, he had no double faults against Patrick Rafter in the quarterfinals. Agassi had only 10 unforced errors, including two in the second set.

“You can’t continue to hit second serves against Andre because he returns too well,” Sampras said. “The serve all week didn’t feel like it was quite there. It was a little bit inconsistent.”

Nevertheless, Sampras remained in contention in the second set until the 12th game. Agassi broke him at love and the first point, an exchange of volleys in close, seemed to take a lot out of Sampras. He promptly double-faulted and lost the next two points to lose the set.

Then, by his own admission, he “wilted away” in the third set.

The kind of incremental progress Sampras made at this event--he had come to Indian Wells on a three-match losing streak--wasn’t enough for him.

“I haven’t played many weeks,” he said. “I’m going to play a little bit more over the next three to four months than I did last year on clay, which is a struggle. When you raise the bar like I’ve raised the bar over the years, you’re expected to win events. When you don’t win one for six months, it’s something that’s going to be talked about.”

For all of their compelling contests and contrasts, matches between Sampras and Agassi are frequently decided in straight sets. Of their last seven meetings, just one, the 2000 Australian Open, has not been determined in straight sets.

For the record, Sampras leads the series 17-13 and is 8-6 in finals against Agassi. Their first match was in 1989 in Rome on clay. Agassi won it, 6-2, 6-1.

“For me, the best match I ever played against Andre was the final a couple of years ago at Wimbledon,” Sampras said. “Granted, it was grass. I think it’s the best display I’ve ever put together.”

This may have been one of the less compelling matches between the two--naturally, expectations are always quite high--but Agassi was expansive afterward. He joked about the winner’s check of $400,000. Sampras received $211,000.

“This wouldn’t even buy some of the cars I’ve seen in Palm Springs,” Agassi said.

There was one final surprise. His dad, Mike, who rarely watches him play, appeared for the final. After posing for pictures, Agassi gave his trophy to his father.

Mike Agassi is 2-0 in 2001. He came to San Jose and watched his son win an early-round match last month. Andre said his father prefers to watch him on TV, to “see the replays.”

This time, Andre the Original was more than enough.

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The Rivalry

Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras have played 30 matches, with Sampras holding a 17-13 edge:

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Head to Head Sampras Agassi Sets 45 37 Tiebreakers 6 6 Indoor 7 4 Outdoor 10 9 On Hard Court 9 8 On Carpet 5 2 On Clay 1 3 On Grass 2 0

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OF NOTE

In Finals Sampras, 8-6

In Grand Slams Sampras, 4-3

In North America Sampras, 8-6

In Europe Sampras, 8-5

In Asia Sampras, 1-0

In Australia Agassi 2-0

Final Review

Box score for No. 4-seeded Andre Agassi’s 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 6-1 victory Sunday over No. 3 Pete Sampras:

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Sampras Agassi First serve percentage 50 75 Aces 14 4 Double faults 11 2 Winners 37 27 Unforced errors 49 10 Break points 0-4 3-10 Net points 41-72 4-5 Total points 90 110 Time of match 2:08

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