|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Coming around Sampras starts slowly, but beats Gimelstob
Posted: Sunday July 02, 2000 01:47 AM
WIMBLEDON, England (Reuters) -- Six times Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, on the brink of disaster with a leg injury, battled back to defeat fellow American Justin Gimelstob 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and reach the last 16 on Saturday. The American said his racquet was a "foreign object" in a disastrous first set and he felt like handing it to Wimbledon greats Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver, watching on Centre Court. "At one point I wanted to throw my racket up there and let them play," he said. Sampras, bidding to land a record 13th Grand Slam, lost his first service game with four double faults. He moved awkwardly, the tendinitis in his left shin clearing constricting him. "Today I really was out of sorts at the beginning," he said. "It is not an easy surface to play on when you don't pick up a racquet for 2-1/2 days." "But you know I got through it. It was definitely a struggle." A hospital scan on Thursday had showed he had acute tendinitis after he hurt his leg practicing ahead of his four-set match against Karol Kucera on Wednesday, and Sampras said he had not picked up a racquet since the hospital visit. After the first set the Centre Court, which Sampras calls "The Cathedral," went quiet, sensing a major shock was in the offing -- Gimelstob had not taken a set off Sampras before. Sampras looked utterly dejected, his head and shoulders slumped down at every change of end, and spectators were openly speculating that he would withdraw imminently. "The first set I was so rusty," he said. "I felt the racquet was a foreign object. I had no rhythm on my serve in the first set -- it was one of the worst sets I've played out there. "You try to hang in there and hope for a break, and I got it," Sampras said. The magic finally returned as the American decided to tough it out. Sampras got his eye in and began moving with all his old confidence towards his 24th consecutive win at Wimbledon. The second set was a very different story to the first. He won his first two service games to love, pounced on Gimelstob to break his compatriot's serve in the ninth game and then comfortably served out for the set 6-4. In the third set, Sampras was playing like a champion again. He broke Gimelstob in the third and fifth game, went into overdrive and took the set after just 90 minutes. Coach Paul Annacone and fiancee Bridgette Wilson, stony-faced in the opening games of the match, were by now smiling and laughing with each other in the stands. In the fourth set, Sampras quickly broke a dejected Gimelstob who served two double faults in the third game and paid the penalty. He was in cruise control with exquisite passing shots that had the crowd roaring with delight. Sampras broke the dejected Gimelstob again in the seventh game with an exquisite return of serve thundering across court on the last point. The reigning champion then won his serve to take his place in the last 16 in a roller-coaster of match that lasted two hours seven minutes. Asked what made Sampras' serve so great, Gimelstob said: "When he came out of his mother's womb, God touched his right shoulder."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
