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Pete prevails U.S., Australia victorious at World Team Championship
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 08:52 PM
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) -- Richey Reneberg upset Dominik Hrbaty and Pete Sampras overcame a lapse in the second set to beat Karol Kucera Wednesday as the United States kept a perfect record and stayed on course to reach the final of the World Team Cup. Australia also brought its record to 2-0 by downing France on singles victories by Patrick Rafter and Mark Philippoussis and the winner of the Blue Group will be decided in a showdown between the two undefeated teams Friday. It will also be a preview of their Davis Cup semifinal tie in September. The $1.65 million team championship brings together the top eight teams, which compete in two groups under a round-robin format. The group winners advance to the final. Reneberg, who has plunged in ATP Tour world rankings, was called into singles duty after Andre Agassi pulled out of the event because of a shoulder injury. After spending nine years in the Top 100, Reneberg has dropped to No. 291. But he gave the American team a rousing start by beating the 31st-ranked Hrbaty 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Sampras, who has surrendered his No. 1 ranking to Yevgeny Kafelnikov after taking a break from tennis and some early-round losses, then secured the U.S. team's victory in the best-of-three series by beating Kucera 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-2. Sampras has yet to win a title this year but has played only five events before the World Team Cup. Still a bit match rusty and playing on red clay, his least favorite surface, Sampras squandered a 4-1 lead in the opening set to be forced into a tiebreaker, which he eventually won. Kucera broke serve for a 4-2 lead in the second, only to see Sampras break right back. But Sampras again fell into a 15-40 hole on his serve and Kucera ripped a forehand winner to tie the score at one set apiece. Sampras stepped up the pace in the third set, hitting a spectacular drop volley at 2-2 to go a break up. From then on, he cruised. "I was trying to have some fun there, it's a fun event," Sampras said. "I had some difficulty in the second set and I tried to be more aggressive in the third. It's a difficult surface for me," said Sampras, who spent 267 weeks at No. 1, three weeks shy of tying Ivan Lendl's record. The World Team Cup is used by most players as a major warmup for the French Open, the second Grand Slam event of the year and the only one Sampras has never won. "You need a lot of luck to win the French Open, you need a good draw," he said. The French Open begins Monday in Paris. The Americans completed a 3-0 victory when Reneberg and Jonathan Stark beat Hrbaty and Tomas Catar 7-5, 6-3 in the doubles. Rafter, who lost the chance of becoming No. 1 by losing Sunday's final at the Italian Open to Gustavo Kuerten, led 5-2 before allowing Cedric Pioline to come back and force a tiebreaker. Rafter, the two time U.S. Open champion who is No. 3 in the world, stayed true to his serve-and-volley game despite the surface and prevailed 12-10 in the dramatic tiebreaker. Pioline put up little resistance in the second set as Rafter completed a 7-6 (12-10), 6-1 victory. Philippoussis clinched the tie by beating the error-prone Nicolas Escude 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). In the meaningless doubles, Rafter and Sandon Stolle rolled to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Pioline and Guillaume Raoux for a 3-0 Australian victory.
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