Obsessed Sampras Enters Final Stretch of Record Quest
November 22, 1998 - 0:0
HANOVER - Pete Sampras's obsession with finishing world number one for a record sixth successive year has added extra spice to this week's ATP tour world championship. American Sampras, who retained his Wimbledon Title this year but has not been quite as impregnable as in previous seasons, is under threat from Marcelo rios in the hanover tournament for the top eight players on the tour which starts on Tuesday. Chilean world number two Rios, who occupied the top spot for two brief periods earlier in the year, is a mere 33 points behind the American in the latest ATP tour rankings, which makes the situation quite simple.
Whoever fares best at the $3.5 million indoor event will finish the year as world number one. Double U.S. open champion Patrick Rafter, the world number three, would have mathematically stood a chance but the Australian, hampered by knee problems, called his season to a halt after losing to American Todd Martin in the third round of the Paris open earlier this month.
Rios could have knocked Sampras off his perch before hanover if he had won in Santiago last week but he lost in the quarter-finals to little-known Juan Antonio Marin of Costa Rica. His most dangerous rival's unexpected exit was naturally welcomed by Sampras, who had put himself in an uncomfortable situation by falling to Australian Jason Stoltenberg in the first round in Stockholm. Sampras loves hanover, where he has triumphed four times already.
After victories in 1991, 1994 and 1996, he convincingly defeated Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov in last year's final to finish the year in top spot for the fifth time in a row, tying the record set by Jimmy Connors from 1974 to 1978. Helped by the withdrawal through injury of Rafter and Dutchman Richard Krajicek, Briton Tim Henman and Kafelnikov took the final two tickets to hanover last weekend.
They joined Sampras, Rios, American Andre Agassi, French open champion Carlos Moya, Fellow Spaniard Alex Corretja and Slovakia's Karol Kucera. Henman has qualified for the first time though he did appear as an alternate last year, winning his only match against eventual runner-up Kafelnikov. The alternate this year will be Henman's compatriot Greg Rusedski. The tournament is played initially in a round robin format.
The eight entrants are drawn into two groups where they all play each other. The first two from each group advance to the semifinals. Rios, who has enjoyed a tremendous season with seven tournament wins, will fancy his chances, as will Henman and Kafelnikov, who have been in great form lately. All three have performed well recently on hard courts similar to the ones in the Deutsche Messe Halle in hanover.
But if he stays free of the injury worries which have so often marred his season, the clear favourite has to be Sampras. In order to get the record, the American decided to spend six successive weeks in Europe playing indoor tournaments, something he had not done since 1993. "I'll do whatever it takes to do it because I think it's definitely up there with the greatest achievements in tennis," he said last month in Stuttgart. "I don't think it will ever be broken." Sampras has often said that the rival he respected the most was Agassi, who was nowhere to be seen this time last year.
While Sampras was cruising to victory in the Northern German city, Agassi, then a modest 122nd in the world, was sweating on the unglamorous challenger circuit in Las Vegas, trying to climb a few places up the rankings. After an awful 1997 season, the former world number one has re-discovered his appetite for the game, regaining a place in the top five for the first time in more than two years.
Currently number four on the ATP list, Agassi has won five tournaments this year but he has often failed to produce when it mattered most on the big occasion. A strong performance by Agassi in hanover could pave the way for a renewed battle for supremacy between him and Sampras in 1999. That would be good news for men's tennis, which is badly in need of such a confrontation to hold the attention of the fans and the media.
(Reuter)
Whoever fares best at the $3.5 million indoor event will finish the year as world number one. Double U.S. open champion Patrick Rafter, the world number three, would have mathematically stood a chance but the Australian, hampered by knee problems, called his season to a halt after losing to American Todd Martin in the third round of the Paris open earlier this month.
Rios could have knocked Sampras off his perch before hanover if he had won in Santiago last week but he lost in the quarter-finals to little-known Juan Antonio Marin of Costa Rica. His most dangerous rival's unexpected exit was naturally welcomed by Sampras, who had put himself in an uncomfortable situation by falling to Australian Jason Stoltenberg in the first round in Stockholm. Sampras loves hanover, where he has triumphed four times already.
After victories in 1991, 1994 and 1996, he convincingly defeated Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov in last year's final to finish the year in top spot for the fifth time in a row, tying the record set by Jimmy Connors from 1974 to 1978. Helped by the withdrawal through injury of Rafter and Dutchman Richard Krajicek, Briton Tim Henman and Kafelnikov took the final two tickets to hanover last weekend.
They joined Sampras, Rios, American Andre Agassi, French open champion Carlos Moya, Fellow Spaniard Alex Corretja and Slovakia's Karol Kucera. Henman has qualified for the first time though he did appear as an alternate last year, winning his only match against eventual runner-up Kafelnikov. The alternate this year will be Henman's compatriot Greg Rusedski. The tournament is played initially in a round robin format.
The eight entrants are drawn into two groups where they all play each other. The first two from each group advance to the semifinals. Rios, who has enjoyed a tremendous season with seven tournament wins, will fancy his chances, as will Henman and Kafelnikov, who have been in great form lately. All three have performed well recently on hard courts similar to the ones in the Deutsche Messe Halle in hanover.
But if he stays free of the injury worries which have so often marred his season, the clear favourite has to be Sampras. In order to get the record, the American decided to spend six successive weeks in Europe playing indoor tournaments, something he had not done since 1993. "I'll do whatever it takes to do it because I think it's definitely up there with the greatest achievements in tennis," he said last month in Stuttgart. "I don't think it will ever be broken." Sampras has often said that the rival he respected the most was Agassi, who was nowhere to be seen this time last year.
While Sampras was cruising to victory in the Northern German city, Agassi, then a modest 122nd in the world, was sweating on the unglamorous challenger circuit in Las Vegas, trying to climb a few places up the rankings. After an awful 1997 season, the former world number one has re-discovered his appetite for the game, regaining a place in the top five for the first time in more than two years.
Currently number four on the ATP list, Agassi has won five tournaments this year but he has often failed to produce when it mattered most on the big occasion. A strong performance by Agassi in hanover could pave the way for a renewed battle for supremacy between him and Sampras in 1999. That would be good news for men's tennis, which is badly in need of such a confrontation to hold the attention of the fans and the media.
(Reuter)