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Andre's angle Agassi edges Sampras, reaches fourth consecutive final
Posted: Thursday January 27, 2000 09:17 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Andre Agassi hammered winners through the few openings Pete Sampras left him Thursday night to advance to his fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament final. The 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (0), 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory sent Agassi into the Australian Open title match against the winner of Friday's semifinal between defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov and No. 12 Magnus Norman. Sampras, serving at up to 206 kph (129 mph), hit 37 aces and played a perfect tiebreaker in the third set, but Agassi bounced back with pesky returns and winners crosscourt, down the line or into Sampras' body. Agassi is the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to reach four consecutive Grand Slam finals. He won the French and U.S. Opens last year, in between losing the Wimbledon final to Sampras, whom he replaced later as No. 1. Sampras, who skipped the Australian Open last year because of fatigue and missed the U.S. Open with a back injury, was seeking to finally break Roy Emerson's record of 12 Grand Slam titles. In his first loss in nine five-set matches at the Australian Open, Sampras looked in a strong position when he scored a minibreak with a forehand cross-court passing shot for a 4-3 lead in the fourth-set tiebreaker. "I felt like that was my chance. I let it slip away in the tiebreaker and I just got a little down on myself," Sampras said. Agassi broke back for 4-4 with a serve return that skipped off the net cord, forcing Sampras to volley wide. On his first set point, Agassi pounced on a short volley by Sampras for a forehand winner. He followed up by breaking Sampras in the second game of the final set with a forehand serve return down the line, and gained one more break in the sixth game with a backhand cross-court pass. Serving for the match, Agassi saved one break point when Sampras hit a backhand long, and ended the 2-hour, 47-minute match with a serve that Sampras blocked wide. He bowed and blew kisses to the crowd after scoring his 12th victory in 29 meetings with Sampras. "The match was so close to being won in the fourth set," Agassi said. "You can't expect him to be perfect. He was in it until then, but I just went away with it in the fifth. "You only ever get a couple of chances against Pete. I let a few opportunities slip by in the second set. He let a few go by in the fourth," he said. "In the fifth, I played well at the right time." In the 7-0 third-set tiebreaker, Agassi added, "I was a spectator." Both players said the cold, windy conditions made it hard to play good tennis. "It was an emotional match," Sampras said. "In the span of five minutes, the whole match changed." He smiled when asked about the end of his perfect record in five-setters at the Australian. "I was doomed," he said. "I'm disappointed but I'm not walking out of here with my head hung down," Sampras said. He said he and Agassi would play many more matches, and "there's a lot of tennis left for this year." He said, however, he would need an examination of a right hip muscle he strained early in the first set. He and Agassi both are scheduled to play in a Davis Cup competition next week in Zimbabwe. "It took me a set to figure out how I was going to deal with [the injury]," he said, but the cause of losing was that "he outplayed me." The women's semifinals were where Lindsay Davenport stopped cheering for Jennifer Capriati's comeback. With her reputation and a place in the Australian Open final on the line, Davenport overcame Capriati's late rally and beat her in a tense tiebreaker. Davenport's 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory sent her into the championship match against Martina Hingis, who has won 27 consecutive matches here on her way to three titles and a place in this year's final. Hingis won her semifinal 6-3, 6-2 against 10th-seeded Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion and a 1998 Australian finalist. Hingis played with the center court roof reopened after rain during Davenport's match. To recuperate for the final, Davenport later pulled out of her doubles semifinal with the same left hamstring injury that bothered her early in her match with Capriati. Davenport, who described the problem as a groin injury, said that in the singles, "the first game I served, I felt a pull and thought I was in trouble. But after a few points I realized that it wasn't that bad, and I think just keeping playing and keeping it warm helped." Capriati came back from 2-4 in the second set, winning eight straight points to tie at 4-4. With Davenport serving for the match at 5-4, she broke for her third time of the set. Early in the tiebreaker, she hit some resounding winners, including her first ace of the match. But at 4-4, in a long rally punctuated by the boom of heavy shots and grunts of effort, she sent a backhand into the net. Then she gave Davenport match point with a serve return just wide. Davenport carefully chose the balls she wanted, put Capriati on the defensive with a good serve, and took the one-hour, 22-minute match when Capriati hit a forehand into the net after a short rally. Davenport called Capriati's comeback from personal problems one of the great stories in women's tennis, and wasn't surprised by the crowd's vocal support for her opponent. "I kind of figured everyone has a place in their heart for players like that. I'm sure if I was in the stands, I would obviously want her to win as well," Davenport said. Though the two are the same age, 23, Capriati was one of Davenport's idols a decade ago. She broke into the top 10 at age 14, reached three Grand Slam semifinals in 1990 and '91 and won an Olympic gold medal in '92, before drifting from the tour the following year. Davenport, meanwhile, climbed slowly, winning the Olympic gold in 1996, moving into the top three in '97 and winning the '98 U.S. Open and '99 Wimbledon. This is her first Australian final after disappointing three-set semifinal losses to Martinez in 1998 and Amelie Mauresmo last year. Davenport is seeded second behind Hingis, and considers herself the underdog Saturday. "Martina obviously pretty much owns this court. But beating her three times in a row last year is going to give me a lot of confidence," she said. "All three matches I overpowered her. That's what I have to do. I know I'm going to make some errors, but I'm going to try to attack the ball, and the fast courts will actually help me, I think." Hingis said, "It has been my court for the last three years, and I intend to keep going one more." When Davenport beat her in 1999's season-ending Chase championships, "I just didn't have anything to hurt her at that time. But I think I've improved since December," Hingis said.
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