Sampras Finally Says Goodbye to Mr. Chips

Fabrice Santoro’s double fault was still nestled in the net when the sigh of relief whooshed through the Stadium Court at Indian Wells Garden like a passing freight train. And that was just from tournament director Charlie Pasarell’s suite.

What has become the Pete Sampras Invitational, known officially as the Pacific Life Open, got a new breath of life early Thursday night when Sampras, by far its biggest attraction, outlasted Frenchman Santoro, a player who has made a career out of driving his opponents nuts.

Santoro will be 30 in December. He is a journeyman who has made nearly $5 million in prize money, is ranked 20th in the world and has made a career of beating people not so much with strokes or power or strategy, but with annoyance.

Santoro is like a sliver under your fingernail, a gnat that makes you itch. Sampras has played him seven times and this was his fourth victory--the three losses coming on clay, where playing Santoro would be the ultimate tennis nightmare. That’s why, even when Sampras, the classic power player with a textbook serve-and-volley game, won the first set, 6-3, there was no real expectation of a quick blowout.

Some 2 hours 2 minutes later, Sampras watched in amazement as Santoro double faulted on match point, only his second of the match, completing a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 survival.

“He’s very easy to get frustrated against,” Sampras said, in obvious understatement. “He doesn’t play with a ton of power, but he gives you no pace, especially off that forehand side, where he just kind of chips it, chips it.”

“Chips it” was a fitting description of the Santoro forehand. He hits with both hands off both sides and the forehand stroke looks like somebody either chopping wood or laying down a drag bunt.

But it was effective, as always, against Sampras, who kept trying to run away with the match and kept getting dinked to death. After a poor-serving second set--he got only 50% of his first serves in during the match--Sampras got out to a 4-1 lead in the third set and had two break points for 5-1, but didn’t convert.

Then it really got hairy. Serving for the match at 5-3, Sampras started with a double fault and ended up losing the game when he tried a drop shot and Santoro, the ultimate tennis roadrunner, chased it down and made a passing shot. Beep, beep. Sampras was in trouble.

Santoro held for 5-5 and then was ahead, love-15, when Sampras hit an overhead close to the baseline.

“At 5-5 of the third set, I was feeling very good,” Santoro said, “and then a huge mistake was made, and that hurt me a lot.” The mistake, according to Santoro, was the line call. He felt Sampras’ shot had been long. It was called good.

Sampras held, and then, at 15-40, after Sampras had gotten to match point with another overhead, Santoro dumped his second serve into the net. Sampras said it was the last thing he expected.

“I kind of stood over a little bit and stood in,” Sampras said. “I think he saw that I might do something with his second. He went for it and hit it into the net.”

Sampras’ victory got him into the quarterfinals and also got the tournament to Friday with a superstar still around. Andre Agassi lost in the first round and the women’s draw was without the marquee value of the Williams sisters, Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport, who didn’t enter.

Sampras will highlight four men’s matches today, when he faces Germany’s Rainer Schuettler, ranked 24 spots below Sampras’ No. 13 on the tour’s entry system.

Also meeting in today’s quarterfinals will be Tim Henman of England against Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia against Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, and Todd Martin against Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia. Martin defeated Karol Kucera of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-2.

Hewitt, No. 1 in the entry system and therefore top-seeded here, not only beat American Jan Michael Gambill, 6-2, 6-4, but seemed to enjoy the frustration of his opponent, who started tossing his racket around six games into the match.

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“It’s a good feeling out there ... if you can look over the net and see him getting frustrated at such an early point,” Hewitt said.

Henman was helped by some similar frustration on the part of volcanic Marat Safin, who served for the first set at 5-4 and failed, then slammed his racket to the court in the middle of the tiebreaker en route to a 7-6 (3), 6-4 loss.