[轉錄]In Homage to Sampras, The Greatest U …
In Homage to Sampras, The Greatest US Open Player Ever
by Matthew Cronin
Monday, August 25, 2003
When the legendary Pete Sampras waves good-bye tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium,
dozens of rich memories of his extraordinary performances at the US Open will
dance through fans heads. Other landmark players have wowed the crowds at
Flushing Meadows, but no player was as impressive in so many ways as Sampras
was in his five title runs here.
Not the wondrous John McEnroe, not even the amazing Jimmy Connors, who like
Sampras won five crowns here, but did not walk away from his last tournament
in New York the winner.
Tennis purists might pick Sampras’ nearly perfect performance in his four-
tiebreaker quarterfinal victory over Andre Agassi in 2001 as his most notable
match.
Some would point to certainly his most courageous contest on US Open soil, when
he vomited his guts out in a five-set victory in the 1996 quarterfinals
against Alex Corretja and was so tired that he had to prop himself up with his
racket. Every time it seemed like the Spanish bull was about to gore him into
the cement, Pistol Pete fired an ace, knocked off a volley, or whaled a passing
shot. It may have been the most electric day-turns-into-night match at Louis
Armstrong Stadium ever, and if it wasn’t, it is right up there with the
geriatric Connor’s 1991 barnburners.
There was Sweet Pete’s baby-faced, stick-boy body first-title run to the 1990,
when at age 19 he became the youngest men's champion in the tournament's
history. Sampras has called this run a fluke, but it really wasn’t. It was a
coming-out party for the greatest serve-and-volley attack in the modern era,
where a teenager blew holes in the asphalt past a list of future numbers ones
including Thomas Muster, Ivan Lendl, McEnroe and Agassi.
There’s no reason to easily dismiss how exquisitely the southern Californian
played when he routinely won the 1993 crown, or how heady of a player he had
become in 1995 when he dismissed countrymen Todd Martin, Jim Courier, and of
course Agassi in the final, when their rivalry was at its highest pitch.
In 1996, not only did the Palos Verdes native repel Corretja, but he also
stopped Michael Chang’s attempt to snare the No. 1 ranking away from him in
the final.
Time and time again, Sampras answered the bell here, but it was his glorious
run to the title in 2002 that most wets the appetite. He hadn’t won the title
in more than two years coming into the tournament and had been a virtual non-
factor all summer. He had reached the US Open final the last two years, but
had been thrashed by Russian strongman Marat Safin and the lightening-quick
Lleyton Hewitt.
Some analysts were telling him to retire. A number of players said he had lost
it and he had put himself through a coaching merry-go-round. But Sampras
stepped on hot young German Tommy Haas in the fourth round, gave America’s
greatest hope Andy Roddick a lesson in the quarters, overcame tricky Dutchman
Sjeng Schalken in the semis and in the final, he shined in his last long moment
like no player ever has before.
He simply left mouths agape. You’d listen to him say that for the zillionth
time that the U.S. Open is "our Super Bowl" and that Agassi always "brings
out the best in me," but you didn’t quite believe that he could beat the red-
hot Agassi for the fourth time at the Open. And then he did, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
The insular 31-year-old was Merlin in tennis whites, a profusely sweating
magician who could turn granite into gold. You’d watch him caress a backhand
drop volley from the service line that trickled over the net and be dumfounded
when you realized that he planned to do it the whole time, and that his margin
of error was much wider than everyone else’s.
When everyone pushed their blue chips on the table, Sampras would pull aces out
of his hand.
"He really loves the occasion," his coach Paul Annacone said. "As introverted
as he is, this is how he shines. He just plays. That’s his emotion."
Sampras had sat down and figured out why he won 13 Slams and dominated his
sport for six years. He needed to get back to his basics, which was to set
the tone with the most fearsome, well-struck, high variety of serves ever
seen of the planet; close at the net as quickly as possible, and play-
threatening, high-risk tennis with his returns and groundstrokes.
Agassi played brilliantly most of the match, but Sampras simply suffocated him
at key moments. It was his maestro performance – "art in motion" as Mardy Fish
described Sampras’ play. He took Agassi completely out of his return games
with wicked slice serves to the deuce court, huge flat serves down the middle
and big kickers out wide to the ad court. He was crisp on his hard volleys and
showed delicate touch with his drop volleys. Moreover, he was aggressive in his
return games, rarely allowing Agassi to exhaust him in long backcourt rallies.
Agassi had a few chances to snare the fourth set, but couldn’t break down
Sampras and blew two break opportunities. Then Sampras began to crank it up
on his return games, and Andre was dust once again.
Obviously, Sampras created a lot of stardust at Wimbledon where he won his
record-breaking 13th Slam title with just a few minutes left of twilight over
Patrick Rafter in 2000. His record seven Wimbledon crowns are nothing to
stuff into a back drawer, nor are his two Australian Open crowns.
But it was his last Slam title – his 14th at the Open, which truly defined
his greatness. His back was firmly against the wall and he sprung of it with
a vengeance.
As Sampras himself said at the time, "It means more than anything because I
had to go through the adversity."
--
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