PETE ZIEBRON in SURPRISE, AZ
14-time Grand Slam Champion Pete Sampras warming up in Surprise, AZ Pete Ziebron Images
Pete Sampras defeated countryman Michael Chang 6-3 then immediately returned to the court to beat yet another American, Jim Courier 8-7(4) to win the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tennis Championships in Surprise, AZ last night.
Earlier in the day, Sampras teamed with 7-time Grand Slam Champion Mats Wilander of Sweden and Courier joined Chang to conduct Player Clinics with tennis players both young and old. Throughout the Clinic, Courier offered words of encouragement to the participants and sometimes even playfully taunted them during the points. Courier's verbal jousting spilled over into his match with Wilander as the two traded barbs after critical points were played.
In the seventh game, with the match tied at 3-3, Courier hit an untouchable serve in the corner, causing Wilander to remark "I hate that serve out wide." Courier replied "Did you feel that altitude on my kicker?"
4-time Grand Slam Champion Jim Courier in Surprise, AZ Pete Ziebron Images
With Wilander serving the next game down 4-3 with new balls, he double faulted on the first point, causing Courier to say "I like these new balls a lot." A few points later, Courier hit an overhead smash into the net and said "Well, I hear the eyes go after 40." Wilander immediately shot back with "Yes, the eyes, legs, and then soon thereafter woooooooo." After 3 deuces, Courier broke Wilander and then served out the match to advance to the Final.
In the second match, Pete Sampras broke Michael Chang in the sixth game of the set and coasted to a 6-3 win. Uncharacteristically, Chang hit 3 aces while serving at 1-2 causing him to remark "I did that? You gotta love this new technology."
The stage was now set for the Sampras-Courier Final and Courier would continue with his entertaining running commentary throughout the match. When Sampras questioned a call at the back of the court in the third game of the set, Courier shot back with "Andre told me a long time ago that's what they put the lines there for." Sampras would break in the next game to take a 3-1 lead and extend the lead to 4-1. In Courier's next service game, he reaced to a 30-0 lead and then hit a sreve that Sampras was not able to reach, Courier quipped "That was 119 but effective. This will be 127 and probably not effective." Sure enough, he clipped the tape but then hit a 2nd serve ace to get back to 2-4. The banter seemed to loosen Courier up a bit as he broke Sampras in the next game and then held serve to square the match at 4-4. During the 8th game, Sampras hit a screaming forehand for a winner causing Courier to remark "Is that as easy as it looks? Because it's really annoying if it is."
Sampras would win the first two points in the next service game and Courier sent a ball boy out to play the next point for him. Sampras grinned and asked the ball boy if he would like to receive the serve on his forehand or backhand. After a few shots, the ball boy netted a forehand and Courier returned to the court. Sampras casually looked to the chair, wondering if the umpire would count the point or not and the umpire informed the players and crowd that the point would be replayed. Later in the game, Sampras uncharacteristically hit a forehand well out, causing Courier to remark "If you had done that a few more times in 1993, in our tiebreaks, I would have won Wimbledon."
The match continued on serve and Sampras earned 2 break points with Courier serving at 5-6 but Courier was able to serve his way out of trouble and tie the match. Both players won their next respective service games to level the set at 7-7 and the Championship match would go to a tiebreak to decide the title.
Courier would get an immediate mini break, Sampras would win 4 of the next 5 points, causing Courier to shout "Stop putting so much pressure on me!" Again, the playful venting allowed Courier to focus and win the next 2 points, levelling the breaker at 4-4. Pete Sampras would win the next 3 points to win the tiebreaker and the Surprise Tennis Championships.
Following the match, Sampras joked that they played 20 times on tour and that he held an 18-2 advantage over Courier. Courier then corrected Sampras saying that he actually won 4 of their 20 matches and that Pete also didn't count the two times that Courier beat him in the juniors and that Pete would probably want to count this one as well.
In the clubhouse, I asked Courier why he was only able to beat Sampras 4 of 20 times while he beat Andre Agassi 7 of the 12 times they met. Courier replied "It's all about matchups. Pete really didn't give me much to work with on his serve, while with Andre, I was able to get into the points more."
Jim Courier does have something on Pete Sampras in Arizona however, as he won the former ATP tour event in Scottsdale in 1995. Sampras played in Scottsdale 4 times and was not able to advance past the 2nd round.
Comments