Sampras Is Burned Again

The heckling spectator--a bloke, around here--was aired out by Pete Sampras late in the second set. He exhorted the linesman on the baseline to do his job. Chair umpire Jorge Dias got some attitude, too.

Even his opponent, Marat Safin of Russia, received a blast of Sampras ice in the fourth set. Sampras was preparing to serve and looked up to see Safin digging into his equipment bag on the sideline for another racket. Sampras, who in his prime rarely acknowledged the existence of his opponents, asked him what he was doing. Safin shot back: “Strings, OK?”

Just when you started to wonder whether Sampras was carrying this new Mark Cuban thing a little too far, it became clear what he was doing. The spirit was trying to pull along his weary body, dragged down by a few too many marathon matches.

That outward fire and some remarkable crowd support got Sampras off the floor but couldn’t get him over the hump Monday night, as Safin held on to win, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8).

The fourth-round match at the Australian Open was a rematch of a U.S. Open semifinal in September, won by Sampras in straight sets. But after he dropped the first two sets, it was looking more like a replay of their U.S. Open final in 2000 in which Safin blitzed Sampras in straight sets.

Down a break in the third, No. 8 Sampras responded with some of his best tennis in months, winning the third-set tiebreaker, 7-5. In a remarkable fourth-set tiebreaker, he led, 4-2, and had two chances to push the match into a fifth set. Safin saved the two set points, and kept his composure after netting a relatively easy forehand passing shot on his first match point.

On his second match point, Safin won it on an incredible passing shot down the line off a Sampras volley that probably would have been a winner against anyone else. And so, a relieved Safin advanced, in 3 hours 33 minutes, finishing with 22 aces to 19 for Sampras.

In the quarterfinals, he will play 30-year-old Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who defeated Albert Costa of Spain, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 9-7, in 4 hours 10 minutes.

Taking note of Ferreira, and Tommy Haas of Germany--who beat Roger Federer of Switzerland in five sets, surviving a match point--the prospect of going the distance against Sampras greatly concerned Safin. “I didn’t expect I can put the forehand this way, down the line and with Pete coming into the net,” said Safin, seeded ninth.

“And I made it. I was so happy, so many things into my head, ‘I’m winning, I’m finished. It’s already 12:30 at night.’ If you go to a fifth set, you never know how it can finish. It would not be nice to go five sets with Pete.... Pete has such big experience and you can lose.

“If you lose this match, it can turn your tennis all the way around, from great match to finishing the match horribly and without confidence.”

This was the sort of jump-start Sampras was looking for in what has become a wide-open men’s tournament, devoid of top-seeded players--Haas, No. 7, is the highest-seeded man left. He has not won here since 1997, or any tournament since Wimbledon 2000.

“I dug myself too deep a hole,” a downcast Sampras said. “... I felt pretty good. I felt my legs were good. Sure, there were some moments that we were both feeling it, but I felt like I could have gone on all day, all night.”

The positive news is that he nearly got out. On the other hand, Sampras, 30, has been getting ground down in the late stages of Grand Slams in best-of-five-set matches.

He has been doing all the right things, hiring a new coach, respected Tom Gullikson, and training harder.

Looking ahead, for Sampras, there is still the oasis of Wimbledon, and the tour is not exactly teeming with grass-court threats.

A reinvented Sampras could find that his hard work will pay off in July at the All England Club, though there are not as many hecklers there to test his temper.

“Oh, I was frustrated the way the match was going and I needed to release it somehow, and the gentleman was talking and tripping away,” Sampras said. “And I let him know how I felt about it, and just kind of showed a little personality for you guys out there. You’ve been waiting for me to do that for 10 years.”