Historic quest
Sampras bids for sixth No. 1 ranking with ATP win; Rios loses
Posted: Tuesday November 24, 1998 09:31 PM
| |
Pete Sampras must keep pace with Marcelo Rios to retain the No.1 ranking AP |
HANOVER, Germany (AP) -- Pete Sampras got a perfect start Tuesday at the ATP World Championship and, unfortunately for Marcelo Rios, so did Tim Henman. Even worse for Rios, his back is hurting again.
Sampras and Rios, the two top players in the world, are locked in a battle for the No. 1 ranking at the end of the year.
While Sampras beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-2, 6-4 in his opening match, Rios was upset 7-5, 6-1 by the big-serving Henman.
Sampras leads Rios by a slim 33 points in the computer rankings and he is seeking to make history by becoming the first man to finish as No. 1 for six years in a row. He shares the record of five with Jimmy Connors.
Rios needs to win at least two matches in the round-robin portion of the elite event tohave a shot at dethroning Sampras in the final rankings for the year.
Sampras showed how badly he wants the record he blieves may never be broken again by crushing Kafelnikov.
"I don't want to say it was a statement, but I definitely was very focused," Sampras said. "I think the guys know that, that this is an important week and it showed."
Rios on the other hand simply faded after falling behind a break in the second set.
The Chilean blamed a recurring back problem for his poor performance and indicated he may even drop out of the tournament.
"My back is hurting really a lot. I'm not in a good condition to continue playing," Rios said.
"I'm going to see how I feel tomorrow. I want to play, I want to be No. 1 but you have to listen to your body," he said. "It's tough to run, it's tough to play when you are in pain."
Henman said beating the No. 2 in the world was always satisfying.
Rios fell to Tim Henman in two sets on Tuesday AP | |
"If things don't go your way, you may feel the injury is worse than it really is," he said.
If Rios drops out, Sampras will be certain to secure the No. 1 spot and break the record.
"I just hope I can maintain this level throughout the week, which is not going to be easy. But today was definitely a good start," Sampras said.
Sampras was impressive in the first set with his crisp serve-and-volley game. Kafelnikov gave him more of a battle in the second set but Sampras still dominated the opponent he beat in last year's final, when he won the title for the fourth time.
"The first set, you can't play play like that every match, every day," Sampras said. "I can't expect to play like that tomorrow, it's not possible. But I'm not ruling it out."
"I definitely had a lot of work to do in the second set," Sampras said. "I didn't want to do what I did last year when I lost my first match and played a little bit flat. I didn't want to dig myself into a hole, having to win my next two matches."
Sampras had problems closing the match, needing six match points. He won it after 66 minutes when Kafelnikov made two straight backhand errors.
Kafelnikov was the last player to clinch a place in the $3.5 million tournament that brings together the eight players with the best results in the year. The round-robin portion consists of two four-man groups, with two players from each advancing to the semifinals.
Rios, who leads the tour with seven titles this year and became the first player to qualify back in August, dropped his serve to lose the first set.
He wasted a break point in the third game of the second and lost his serve again in he fourth, beginning a series of sloppy errors that got him boos from the public. The match was over also in 66 minutes, when Rios hit a careless backhand long.
In a battle between the other two players in Sampras' Red Group, Carlos Moya rallied to beat Karol Kucera 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-3.
Moya, the French Open champion, won his first indoor match of the year, after going 0-5 until Hanover.
The next opponent for Sampras on Wednesday is Moya, who beat the American in the opening match last year. In other matches Wednesday, Kucera plays Kafelnikov and Andre Agassi makes his debut against Alex Corretja.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
