Stalking No. 1 again
Sampras moves into ATP semis; Agassi quits his match
Posted: Wednesday November 25, 1998 09:51 PM
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Pete Sampras, who is seeking to become the first man to finish No. 1 in the world for six years in a row, beat Moya in 62 minutes AP |
HANOVER, Germany (AP) -- Pete Sampras is playing too well to have to worry about figuring out the intricacies of the round-robin format.
After beating Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday, Sampras was not even aware that he had clinched a place in the semifinals of the ATP World Championship.
"That's nice to hear," Sampras said after being told at the post-match news conference that he had secured a place in the last four.
"It's certainly a good feeling to be here over the weekend," Sampras said.
Sampras is seeking to become the first man to finish as No. 1 in the world for six years in a row.
Marcelo Rios, the only player who can threaten Sampras, trails by 33 points in the computer rankings and has to do better than Sampras in the elite season-ending championship that brings together the top eight players of the year.
But Rios, who was not scheduled to play Wednesday, lost his first match to Tim Henman and is battling a back injury. He now has to win his next two round-robin matches to reach the semifinals and stay in the chase.
The eight players are split into two groups and Sampras and Rios cannot meet until the semifinals.
"It helps," Sampras said of Rios losing the first match. "I'm also helping myself by winning. I can't really be too concerned about what Marcelo is doing."
"I have to concentrate on my matches. If I take care of things myself and go out and win, then it should be hopefully good enough. But I must admit I was rooting for the Englishman [Henman] yesterday," Sampras said.
Andre Agassi, who won the elite tournament in 1990, withdrew in the third set AP | |
Sampras was certainly good enough to beat Moya in only 62 minutes. Moya, the French Open champion who is now 1-1, had beaten Sampras in a group match last year but Sampras went on to win the $3.5 million event for the fourth time.
On Tuesday, Sampras was equally impressive in dismissing Yevgeny Kafelnikov in straight sets.
"It's not easy to play well like I have been today and yesterday. I was coming into today's match pretty confident," Sampras said. "I wanted to make sure I was coming in a little bit more than last year, chipping and charging, trying to put as much pressure on him as possible."
"Last year I must admit I felt a little flat. This year, with the ranking up for grabs, I just made a concerted effort to come here a little bit early and prepare as best as I can.
"It's obviously a very big week for Marcelo and I. I just wanted to give myself the best chance possible to play well here," said Sampras, who fired 13 aces.
The second American in the field, Andre Agassi, retired in his opening match against Alex Corretja because of a back injury. Corretja was leading 5-7, 6-3, 2-1 when Agassi quit.
Agassi was practicing with Corretja on Monday when he fell and hurt his back and has been receiving shots and other treatment since then.
"It was definitely painful even this morning in my warmup. I needed to give it a go, at least try to keep the points short," Agassi said.
"But I hit a swinging volley and when I twisted it was just like somebody stuck a knife in me. Pretty soon it got quite pointless," he said.
Agassi, who won the event in 1990, said he would wait until Thursday before deciding whether to continue the tournament, which is possible under its round-robin format, but added that he would be surprised if he played.
Although he has surged back to No. 4 this year after falling as low as No. 141 at the same time last year, Agassi has not done well at major tournaments this season.
"The year has been great for me in many respects, but the great tournaments have been pretty disappointing," Agassi said. "I've worked really hard and had to grind week after week to get myself in position, only to struggle when I got into position."
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