Agassi Stopped After 4 Sets, 4 Tiebreakers
By Rachel Alexander Nichols
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 6, 2001
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Sept. 5 -- Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi flat-
out battled at the U.S. Open tonight. They pushed, they pulled, they
spent 3 hours 33 minutes playing through a career's worth of wins and
losses. And when it finally was over, a rivalry that has spanned more
than two decades and 20 combined Grand Slam titles simmered down to a
simple forehand popping into a net, a point that gave Sampras a 6-7 (9-
7), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) victory he will remember for the
rest of his life.
"It was awesome," he said simply afterward, and for a while there
seemed to be no other word. "That's probably about as good as it gets,
playing the very best on a night match at the U.S. Open. It was so
close; it really was."
That Sampras, the man who entered this tournament with a rickety
backhand and a plummeting reputation, won the match over a fit and
feisty Agassi was only barely more stunning than the level of play on
an evening when neither player's serve was broken. When the two finally
met at the net amid a thunderstorm of applause, they exchanged a
handshake and a hug and, Agassi said, "we both expressed a tremendous
appreciation for the opportunity to be out there with each other."
The words echoed the sentiments of a raucous crowd of 23,033 that
shouted "Pete" and "Andre" through a match where no last names were
required. This was the 32nd time Agassi and Sampras have played each
other, and while the official prize, a berth in the semifinals against
defending champion Marat Safin, hardly was the grandest they have
battled over, the stakes seemed so very much higher than simply
advancing.
For the second-seeded Agassi, this was a chance to prove his longevity,
his stamina against a player who for a long time burned more brightly
than him but who he desperately wants to outlast. For Sampras, who came
into this match seeded a paltry No. 10, it was about something even
deeper, a pride that has been rumbling through his racket since he
stepped onto the familiar courts of the National Tennis Center.
He has not won a title in 14 months, he has been drummed out of the
early rounds of several recent tournaments and, worst of all to a man
who held the No. 1 ranking for six years, his nearly mythic presence on
the court seemed to have been reduced to the size of a thimble. For a
player who has won when he's been injured, won when he's vomited, won
when he was a kid who didn't know any better, this has been the
ultimate challenge, and for the last 10 days, he has risen to it with
increasing aplomb.
In five matches, Sampras has lost his serve only three times, and all
of those came at the beginning of the tournament. By the end of
tonight's match, he had held his serve 71 straight times, stringing out
an evening that effortlessly overcame what had been a tremendous
buildup. The magnitude of hype had been so extreme, in fact, that
earlier in the evening, when Jennifer Capriati took just over an hour
to thump Amelie Mauresmo, 6-3, 6-4, to earn her own semifinal berth
against Venus Williams, she had joked that "I just knew everyone wanted
to see the next match, so I made it as quick as I could."
Even with her efforts, by the time the men's match started, the crowd
nearly was choking on its own anticipation. The cell phones that
normally ring were silent, the fans who usually mill through the
massive stadium's 90 suites were sitting rod-straight in their seats.
So little noise filtered through the air during the first few points
that each squeaky slide of the players' sneakers ballooned out to fill
the void, although once the tug-of-war began in earnest, a chorus of
cheers began to swell.
The players' games also began to rise with each point, and although the
first little flinch came from Sampras, it was Agassi who fell behind 0-
40 midway through the first set. Sampras's attempts to take advantage
fell flat on a series of errors, and while Sampras again went ahead, 6-
3, in the first-set tiebreak, again Agassi battled, erasing Sampras's
set points and building two of his own to cement an early lead.
"I think when I won the first-set tiebreak, I think I certainly had the
momentum," said Agassi, who entered the match with a 49-1 record when
winning the first set at the U.S. Open. "I was trying to step up
because it felt like an opportunity for me to break things open a bit."
Already exhausted and elated after 54 minutes of play, the crowd leapt
to a standing ovation, although the match was truly only beginning.
Sampras and Agassi continued to interlock service games like teeth on a
zipper, and while Sampras seemed to stagger a bit, double-faulting
three times in one game, the second set barreled toward another
tiebreak. This time, Sampras was able to take control earlier and keep
it, and when he saw an open forehand up the line on set point, he
slammed his racket forward, setting up a winning backhand volley.
"Andre didn't miss much, so winning the second-set breaker was a huge
part of the match," Sampras said. "If I go down two sets to love
without losing my serve, mentally it would have been tough to come
back."
Instead the turn in momentum seemed to energize Sampras, who belted
through his next few service games with ease. And while Agassi was able
to keep up through the third set, guarding his own serve like a
Rotweiler, he delivered several unforced errors in the third-set
tiebreak to give Sampras a two-sets-to-one lead. Sampras continued to
push in the fourth, and even as Agassi pushed back, he fended off a
break point with a 116 mile-per-hour serve that swept far past Agassi's
extended racket.
Sampras then earned a break point of his own the very next game, a 30-
40 advantage that set off a hypnotizing rally, but Agassi was not yet
ready to relent. As the seemingly inevitable fourth-set tiebreak
loomed, the fans again rose to their feet, applauding the shots,
applauding the sweat, applauding the moment, and when Sampras broke out
a 119 mph hour serve a minute before midnight the noise was nearly
deafening.
"When the crowd stood up and there was that one moment, I was
like, 'This is pretty special what we're doing here.' But after that
was over it was back to work," Sampras said.
By the time he worked his way to a 6-3 lead in the final tiebreak, he
had to back away from the service line to wait out the noise, and while
he seemed to have the match easily in hand, nothing this night came
easy.
Sampras flung a forehand volley into the net to tighten the score to 6-
4; a double fault brought it to 6-5. But finally, after a long rally
and some blockbuster shots from both players, Agassi finally caved, his
own forehand sailing toward the netting as Sampras raised both arms in
victory.
"A match like this just boils down to a few shots and that's the
difficulty in it and that's the beauty in it," Agassi said. "You have
to give credit where credit is due. Pete played the big points well and
pulled out a match that's disappointing for me, but I'm glad to be a
part of it."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sampras outslugs Agassi
Four sets, four tiebreakers. The 4-time U.S. Open champ's resurgence continues with a 31/2-hour epic victory.
By SHARON GINN, St. Petersburg Times
September 6, 2001
NEW YORK -- They have met 32 times and won 20 Grand Slam titles between them. So in a quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open, what kind of dazzling stat could Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi produce on a Wednesday night that they hadn't been able to before?
The answer: Four.
As in four tiebreaks in four sets, an amazing 3-hour 32-minute marathon that ended with the underestimated Sampras on his way to the semifinals.
And the final score on its way to the history books: Sampras d. Agassi 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5).
More amazing was neither player lost serve. Sampras has held serve in 72 straight games.
"What more can you do but not lose your serve?" Sampras asked rhetorically.
What more, indeed.
"A match like this just boils down to a few shots," Agassi said. "That's the difficulty in it but that's the beauty in it. Pete played the big points real well and pulled out a match that was disappointing for me, but I was glad to be a part of it."
The final isn't until Sunday, but this is the match people will remember, an astounding display of tennis between perhaps two of the most evenly matched players in history.
It was so big, celebrities will rush to claim they were there. Even Agassi's fiancee, a pregnant Steffi Graf, emerged from the shadows after midnight to watch anxiously. Officially, a capacity crowd of 23,033 filled Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Yes, Sampras had 25 aces -- many 118 mph blasts on second serve -- but Agassi's tenacious returns forced Sampras to be equally persistent. He ventured to the net, pulling out every shot in his arsenal, making minute adjustments, dropping them just so or placing them with dazzling precision along the line or in a back corner.
And though he double-faulted 12 times, including in the final tiebreaker, his serve did not fail him. Threatened with break point in the fourth set, Sampras boomed an ace at 30-40, then held a service clinic, quickly adding three more points to hold and force yet another tiebreaker.
Most years the victory would seem like no great feat, but Sampras hasn't won since Wimbledon 2000 and slipped to the 10th seed at the Open, an event he has won, yes, four times.
Will he make it five?
Does it really matter?
"It was a pleasure playing tonight," Sampras said. "The energy was phenomenal."
For once, a men's match completely overshadowed the women at the Open. The semifinal showdown everyone had hoped for was set: Venus Williams vs. Jennifer Capriati, Time magazine cover girl vs. the poster child for perseverance.
Capriati, winner of two Grand Slams this year whose steadiness in big events has been unmatched, beat overmatched Amelie Mauresmo 6-3, 6-4.
"Really I just wanted to stay on top of her and not let her back in the match," Capriati said. "That's also something I've been working on, just stay on top and try to bury them . . . keep the high intensity through the whole match and not have lapses.
"I've been able to play really well throughout. This match, I knew how to step it up and play some of my best tennis, and I did. It shows me that i'm just getting better each round."
Williams, the 2000 Open champion, was able to dispatch fifth-seeded Kim Clijsters despite 43 unforced errors.
Like Capriati, Williams has not dropped a set in this tournament. But Wednesday she wasted 11 of 16 break-point chances, including 7 of 9 in the first set. Clijsters, ranked No. 5 in the world, played even worse: She had 38 unforced errors, converted on 1 of 9 break-point chances and mustered five winners to Williams' 21.
"I wasn't stringing together the points the way I'd like to exactly," Williams said. "I did a few good points, and then I missed a few easy shots, too. But a win is a win."
Just ask the men's 2000 Open champion. After an erratic spring and mostly discouraging summer, No. 3 seed Marat Safin is back in the semifinals. He knocked off unseeded Mariano Zabaleta 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 and plays Sampras.
No. 4 Lleyton Hewitt also managed to stick around. His match against No. 16 Tommy Haas on Tuesday afternoon was suspended because of rain with Hewitt trailing 3-6, 2-2. But Hewitt roared back Wednesday morning, winning the second set and the next two.