His Is the Mother of Reinventions

Pete Sampras was getting ready to play for a title two weeks ago in Long Island, and his late decision to play in the Hamlet Cup seemed more of an act of desperation, considering he almost lost to diminutive Olivier Rochus in his opening match.

Sampras is preparing to play for another title in this state today, and in the last 14 days, this perceived quiet desperation has been replaced by fist-pumping domination.

Who is this 30-year-old replacement?

The sudden reinvention of Sampras continued for another afternoon at the U.S. Open on Saturday as he took out another former champion. The 10th-seeded Sampras beat No. 3 Marat Safin of Russia, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in 1 hour 54 minutes in the semifinals. He has defeated three former champions in consecutive rounds, Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi and Safin.

His opponent in the final will be No. 4 Lleyton Hewitt. The 20-year-old Australian was in devastating form in his semifinal, defeating No.7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1, in 1 hour 23 minutes. Hewitt set the tone in the opening game, breaking Kafelnikov after falling behind, 40-0.

It was the most one-sided U.S. Open semifinal in the open era. “I said coming in here [thinking] it’s been a good year without being a great year,” Hewitt said. “It’s getting a little bit better now.”

Kafelnikov was simply overmatched. “I tried to play one game plan in the beginning,” he said. “Middle way through the first set, I realized it wasn’t working, and I tried to do different things. Every time I was asking him a question, he had an answer.”

Hewitt will be playing in his first Grand Slam final, and it will be a rematch of last year’s semifinal here against Sampras.

Safin believes the outcome is in the hands of Sampras.

“The way Pete is playing, it’s like Pete is pure talent, and Hewitt is hard work, fighter,” said Safin, who defeated Sampras in straight sets in last year’s final. “Completely different style of game. So I don’t know.

“I think it will depend a lot on Pete because he’s playing at home. He’s playing in front of his people. Everybody wants him to win this tournament. I think it depends on Pete.”

The people here weren’t always Pete people. Certainly, many remember the Open crowd cheering more for, say, Rafter when they played in the semifinals in 1998.

Sampras became a sympathetic figure this time when he arrived in New York in part because he had not won a title in 17 tournaments.

Fans love these stories. Now, it’s all but official. Sampras is his own episode of “Behind the Music” on VH1. Guy wins, guy loses, guy wins again. Instead of cutting records, Sampras is setting them. The four-time Open champion will be trying to win his 14th Grand Slam singles title, well more than a year after he set the record at Wimbledon last year.

He said this has been his most difficult route in a Grand Slam, even tougher than one harsh semifinal run at the 1996 French Open.

“This, I think, beats it all, having played three champions, three guys, especially Pat and Andre,” Sampras said. “I think we looked at those two guys as being the two guys to beat. And certainly Safin being the defending champion, he was going to be one of the threats. It’s been a lot of hard work.”

After playing what probably would have been finals anywhere else in his last three matches, the real final comes about 24 hours after the semifinals.

“It’s obviously a tough turnaround here, playing Lleyton [today] at 4 [1 p.m. PDT],” he said. “It’s the Super Saturday CBS contract, you know. Got to pay for the prize money.”

Sampras’ famously shy parents, Sam and Georgia, are not expected to be on hand for the final, according to his sister Stella. She has been here since last week and said he never doubted himself during his slump, though the retirement questions irritated him.

“Everything else has been justified,” she said of criticism of Sampras’ game.

He lost in the Hamlet Cup final to Tommy Haas of Germany, and got better with each round at the Open, hitting an astonishing level against Agassi in their quarterfinal epic on Wednesday.

Though he was blown out in last year’s final against Safin, Sampras knew it would be difficult for the young Russian to repeat that performance.

“I was pretty much blown off the court last year,” he said. “I mean, he was on fire and I wasn’t that quite fresh in the legs. You have to accept it. It was one of those days where everything he did was on, and I wasn’t quite there.”

Even Safin knew it would be nearly impossible to duplicate.

“Last year’s final, forget about this,” he said. “I played too good. Doesn’t matter if it’s Pete. Doesn’t matter who. I would never play the same tennis in all my life, rest of my life ... nobody had a chance, nobody. I would play against even God, he has no chance also.”

Sampras never broke Safin’s serve last year. This time, it took him only 19 minutes. Sampras did not face a break point until the fourth game of the second set and erased two of them in that game.

The third, and final, break-point opportunity for Safin was in the 10th game of the second set. Sampras erased it with an ace, which was first called out, then overruled by the chair umpire.

In the second-set tiebreaker, Safin lost it despite cracking a 130-mph serve on set point for Sampras. Sampras hit a short return and Safin knocked a forehand wide.

The final blow for Safin came in the third set when Sampras broke him to take a 3-1 lead, hitting a lob winner. Sampras kissed his racket after the shot.

Afterward, Sampras was reminded he has not lost his service in 87 games. “Shouldn’t have told me that,” he said, smiling. “Kiss of death.”

Kissing his racket will do.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Final

What: Men’s singles final at the U.S. Open tennis championships

Who: Pete Sampras (10) vs. Lleyton Hewitt (4), Australia

When: 1:15 p.m. PDT

TV: Channel 2