Grand
Slam No. 10: Wimbledon 1997
Headline news and
press conference
Just Call
him St. Pete: Sampras wins fourth Wimbledon
Championship
WIMBLEDON, England (July 7,
1997)-- As Pete Sampras grows more fearless,
his peers can't help but grow more fearful
that, for the near future at least, Sampras
means to keep the Grand Slam tournament
titles to himself. They are the prizes he
most cherishes and fights most fervently to
claim.
Sampras won his fourth
Wimbledon title Sunday, dispatching Cedric
Pioline of France, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, in 95
minutes.
Sampras, 25, now has 10 Grand
Slam tournament titles,two behind Roy
Emerson's record. With his focus narrowed
almost solely to the four major events, the
resolute Sampras may claim that record by
this time next year. Sampras won the
Australian Open in January and is the
defending U.S. Open champion.
Asked after the match to
survey the tennis scene and assess what in
the game he fears, Sampras frankly saw
nothing. "I really have no fear in the
game," Sampras said. "I feel if I'm
playing well, I'm tough to beat. I've got
some options out there. I can stay back or
come in, and to serve as well as I have these
past couple of weeks, I'm going to be tough
to beat because when I'm confident and
playing well, that's it for me."
That's it for everyone else.
Sampras' serving fuels his confidence, drives
his game and sets in motion a relentless
chain of events opponents find overwhelming.
As his serving improves, Sampras volleys
better, and when that happens he grows more
relaxed. A loose and confident Sampras is
highly dangerous, as he has shown here.
From the first round to the
semifinals, Sampras went 97 consecutive
service games without being broken. He held
116 of 118 service games during the
tournament.
Sampras' serve Sunday was no
less lethal. He lost only 17 points against
his serve and faced only one break point.
It's not just about velocity. Sampras was
able to place his serve where he wanted to,
and his 17 aces would surely have been
multiplied against a player with less ability
to return serve.
Pioline gets the ball back
over the net, and in earlier rounds he had
defeated two of the game's best servers: Greg
Rusedski and Michael Stich. But even
above-average ability isn't good enough when
Sampras fires as he did during Sunday's match
on cool and partly sunny Centre Court.
"I don't know what happened with my
serve, to tell the truth," Sampras said.
"They just clicked in every match I had.
It was the shot that won me the tournament.
This is the best I've ever served in my
career."
Sampras' serves made the
match seem more brutally one-sided than it
was, though really there was about all of the
competitive suspense that a Wimbledon final
between the No. 1 and No. 44 players in the
world might have suggested. Unseeded Pioline
had no chance.
"When you play Pete, he
doesn't give you air -- you know, you cannot
breathe against him because he's serving so
big and returning so good," Pioline
said. "When he gets the break, he's
serving even better because he doesn't want
to give you a chance to come back."
Pioline hurt his cause by
losing his serve in the third game of the
first set. Sampras fired an ace to gain set
point and, when Pioline sent a backhand
return long, Sampras had the first set in 36
minutes.
Pioline held serve to open
the second set, then Sampras responded with
second-serve ace, ace, service winner, ace.
Sampras broke in the fifth game when Pioline
dumped a forehand volley into the net.
Pioline's volley was not at the level he
maintained against Stich in the semifinals,
but Sampras was passing well. Sampras was
accurate from the baseline, committing only
eight unforced errors. Sampras broke again in
the seventh game and held to serve out the
set.
Pioline played Sampras to his
first two deuces in the second game of the
third set, but each time Sampras fired an ace
to get out of trouble. He broke in the third
game and held to take a 3-1 lead. Pioline got
his first break point in the eighth game,
aided by a rare double fault by Sampras.
Sampras held, as did Pioline in the next
game. Fittingly, Sampras served out the
match, punctuating his victory with a service
winner on championship point.
Sampras allowed himself a
mild celebratory moment on court, and
afterward gave voice to his pride in his
accomplishment.
"To have won 10 by the
age of 25, I never really thought that would
happen," Sampras said, allowing himself
to sound impressed. "This is what's
going to keep me in the game for a lot of
years: the major tournaments. I put so much
pressure on myself to do well here and at the
other majors. It makes it all worth it, all
the hard work I put into the game."
A coda to Sampras' comments:
Emerson won his 12th Grand Slam tournament
title at 30 and during an era when three of
the four majors were contested on grass.
How many would Sampras -- the
best grasscourt player of is generation --
have won if he had three times the
opportunity?
The Detroit News
Sampras
Is Grand Again
American's fourth title at Wimbledon
by: Scott Ostler, SF Chronicle
Wimbledon, England (July 7, 1997) -- It
was a day for French impressionists, not
French tennis players.
Fluffy mashed-potato clouds floated over
Centre Court yesterday afternoon, playing
hide-and- seek with the sun, providing
beautiful and constantly changing background
scenery, begging for a Monet or Renoir.
But on the court, the art was American
gothic, the work executed in flashing, bold,
realistic strokes, not little dibs and dabs.
Pete Sampras had his mojo working, his
killer serve, and France's Cedric Pioline
might as well have been waving at Pistol
Pete's pitches with a sourdough baguette.
Sampras won his fourth Wimbledon title in
five years, and his 10th Grand Slam
tournament, with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 cruise over
the gallant (he stayed for the entire match)
but grossly outclassed Pioline.
``There's something that just clicks on,''
Sampras said after his brisk 94-minute
workout. ``You're relaxed and my tennis just
took over.''
Sounds easy, and it looked easier.
``I served and volleyed about as well as
I've ever served and volleyed in my career,''
he said. ``I don't know what happened with
the serves, to tell you the truth. They just
clicked for every match. It was the shot that
won me the tournament.''
Pioline, ranked No. 44 in the world,
career winner of two minor tournaments, and
0-7 lifetime against Sampras, figured to be a
tomato can.
And he was, and you had to wonder how
Sampras got so pumped up for this one. Maybe
he fantasized that the guy on the other side
of the net was the old Andre Agassi.
But Sampras now isn't mowing down
opponents; he's clawing his way up the
stepladder of tennis history.
His fourth Wimbledon title moves him into
a seven-man neighborhood, topped by William
Renshaw (1881-89) with nine Wimby wins.
Sampras' 10th Grand Slammer puts him in a
five-man club, tied with Bill Tilden and two
back of Roy Emerson.
The way Sampras blazed through Wimbledon,
it's hard to imagine this is the same guy who
has been beaten in his past six tournaments,
dating to March.
He has lost to people named Jonas
Bjorkman, Magnus Larsson and Bohdan Ulihrach.
But this is Grand Slam Sampras, who sets
his alarm clock for the ones that really
count, and for these two weeks has been all
but untouchable.
While some experts were trying to give
Pioline a ghost of a chance, the tea-sipping
hipsters on Centre Court knew better than to
expect a tennis match to break out. The
faintest glimmer came in the second game of
the third set, when Sampras double-faulted.
It was the first sign that he might be
playing the same sport as Pioline. Alas,
moments later Sampras slashed the outside
line of Pioline's service box with an ace,
slashed the inside line with another ace, and
surgically closed out the game with a service
winner.
``Yes, he's playing very good,'' Pioline
said, ``but I mean, it's not God.''
God doesn't double-fault. But if Pioline
was unwilling to wax poetic about Sampras, to
place him among the all-time greats, at least
Cedric was not in complete denial.
``It's normal to be tight when you play
that kind of match,'' Pioline said, ``and
especially when you play Pete, because he
doesn't give you air, you know, you cannot
breathe against him because he's serving big
and he's returning good.''
There's more to Sampras' game than the
serve, and for sheer horsepower, he doesn't
have nearly the biggest boomer in tennis. In
this tournament, his first serve was usually
around 127 mph, and that makes him no higher
than fifth in the octane ratings.
But his command of serve was way too much
for the field. In his seven Wimbledon matches
Pistol Pete served 121 games and was broken
twice. His ace-to-double- fault ratio was
phenomenal: 119 to 15.
Yesterday Sampras faced one break point,
in the eighth game, after his second
double-fault.
But three big serves and a couple slice
volleys restored order, and the only
remaining suspense was whether the Duke and
Duchess of Kent, said to be splitsville,
would appear together for the trophy
presentation. (They did, but weren't holding
hands.)
Sampras smiled pleasantly for the royalty
and the cameras when it was over, but during
the match he was as serious and relentless as
a bricklayer getting paid by the row.
No quirks or stalls or tricks from Pete.
Before every first serve he takes two balls,
makes a millisecond comparison and dribbles
the reject back to the ballkid. Other players
keep a spare for the second serve, but
Sampras packs light.
When his game is in tune, the sheer
methodical, emotion-free relentlessness must
be daunting to his opponents.
``Once the first point starts,'' Sampras
said, ``you just kind of get into the
mind-set and the routine that you've done
this for so many years, that it's all just
muscle memory, and it just goes, and it's
something that just clicks on at a certain
time.''
Sampras was blazing out of the starting
blocks in just about every match this
tournament. Yesterday he won his first 11
service points and broke Pioline in the third
game of the first set, and a BBC announcer
described Pioline's countenance, with only a
bit of exaggeration, as a ``horrified gaze.''
It wasn't just the Sampras serve.
``His touch shots are in good nick,'' the
BBC announcer noted, and he saluted Sampras'
``brutal reply'' -- his return of serve.
In short, the whole package. A hunger to
win the big ones, the nerve to withstand the
pressure, the killer instinct to hammer a
lesser foe, and the strokes.
Click.
Back to top
No
contest as Pioline is crushed by power of Sampras
THERE were plenty of things Pete Sampras
could have said to Cedric Pioline after
blasting him away in straight sets in 94
minutes. He could have remarked upon the
theatrical qualities of the Centre Court,
asked him how his family was or offered him
another set to pass a bit more time. The best
and most accurate thing he could have said,
though, was: "Sorry. I hope you get well
soon," writes Paul Hayward
It was easy to understand why Sampras
failed to throw himself to the ground and
scream at the heavens, as many Wimbledon
winners do. That would have implied that he
was emotionally drained, or had come close to
breaking sweat. Even before the match it was
hard to imagine a man called Cedric winning
anything grander than a regional tax
inspector of the month award. After it, you
wanted to put your house on Sampras breaking
Bjorn Borg's open-era record of five
Wimbledon singles titles.
At 25, Sampras has now won four Wimbledon
championships and 10 Grand Slam events. Three
more and he will hold the record. Alarmingly
for his ever-growing list of frazzled
victims, Sampras says he is only
"halfway through" his career.
"Jimmy Connors was still winning majors
when he was in his early 30s," he said.
"As long as I'm playing well, working
hard and staying healthy there's no reason
why I can't play at this level for many
years."
We can forget about the Centre Court being
a citadel of Englishness, with floppy hats,
Robinson's Barley Water and an artistically
parched lawn. Its other side is a vision of
hell in which people fall into eternal
flames. After her defeat by Martina Hingis in
the women's final, Jana Novotna seems
destined to be the recipient of such agonies.
Sampras's victory over Pioline, 6-4, 6-2,
6-4, was as brutal as it was brilliant. They
should have given Pioline another go, on the
grounds that he was clearly not ready first
time round.
Pioline, whose wife, Mireille, made her
first, and probably last, visit to England to
see her husband demolished, joins Boris
Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Jim Courier in
the list of Sampras's Wimbledon conquests.
Pioline, or what was left of him, did manage
a lap of honour clutching a silver plate that
would have been better employed as body
armour. His serve was broken as early as the
third game of the match. "From there I
was running after the score," he said,
summoning an improvisational quality in his
speech that was mostly absent in his play.
In the year of the non-seeds, Pioline was
the L'Etranger, the 100-1 outsider who, at
the end of a doubtless enjoyable and
profitable fortnight, ran into the whirlwind
of Sampras's talent. Throughout the
tournament Sampras dropped his own serve only
twice. He dropped a game in his first-round
match against Mikael Tillstrom and then went
96 service games before losing the second,
against Todd Woodbridge. The gap between him
and the rest was so big it was cruel. And
cruelty never seemed so good.
It is wonderful that Sampras should be
this superior. The Centre Court crowd may
feel it a pity that he had to be this
superior on men's final day, when the climax
of the championship is supposed to throw up
something resembling a contest. It was the
same last year, when Richard Krajicek charged
through MaliVai Washington in straight sets.
No oohs and aahs in the nation's sitting
rooms, then. Just silence and wonderment and
a resigned trudge back to the weekend jobs.
In the first set it was Sampras's third
service game before Pioline managed a point
against the serve. In set two, Pioline handed
Sampras the first of two breaks by
mis-hitting four backhand volleys, one wide
and three into the net. The first two sets
were won in 62 minutes. When Sampras made his
first bad mistake, he walked off the court
and changed his racket. Only broken machinery
was capable of lowering his standards.
If it sounds, also, as if Pioline was
inept, none of us non-combatants can
comprehend what it is must be like to face
Sampras's endlessly scorching serves, his
ferocious returns to an opponent rushing
optimistically into the net. And on the
Centre Court, with millions of people
watching. Getting to one of his first serves
is quite an accomplishment. Getting it back
over the net should carry some sort of United
Nations award.
The purists will remember it as an
unusually important weekend, both for the
emergence of Hingis as champion at 16 years
of age and what it said - or confirmed -
about Sampras. His body and will were in
perfect harmony. It was a marvel to watch his
feet plant themselves, his head remain still,
the kinetic energy of his body load itself
for transmission down the metal wand of his
racket. This was not a match. It was an
exhibition.
"This is what it's all about. The
major titles," said Sampras later.
"This is what's going to keep me in the
game for a lot of years. The only match I
struggled in was the one against [Petr]
Korda. I lost my serve only twice and I
served and volleyed as well as I have in my
career. I'm really pumped."
Inevitably the subject of Sampras's sober
on-court demeanour raised itself. It always
does. He said: "I know I'm not Dave
Letterman when it comes to interviews, but
the way I am on court is the way I've been my
whole life, and it's the way I'll continue to
be - very much to myself, a lot like Borg
was. Concentrating and focused.
"I don't plan on changing for
anybody, because it's who I am."
Back to top
Top-seeded
Sampras breezes through final
By: Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England - History is Pete
Sampras' only competitor. Four Wimbledons.
Ten Grand Slams. Virtually no one in the way
of more to come. His rivals these days are
all retired - Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Roy
Emerson.
Cedric Pioline, chasing aces and groping
after groundstrokes, certainly could do
nothing Sunday to stop Sampras as he put the
finishing touch on a tournament he dominated
like no other in his sterling career.
It wasn't just the score, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4,
or the time, a mere minutes, or even the ace
count, 17, against Pioline that distinguished
this Wimbledon from all of Sampras' other
major championships.
It was the way he put together the whole
package of his skills - the serve that was
broken only twice in 118 games over two
weeks, the backhand returns that dispirited
Pioline and everyone else, and the speed with
which Sampras raced to the net.
``I don't know what happened with the
serves, to tell you the truth,'' Sampras said
of his amazing consistency from first match
to final. ``They just clicked for every match
I played. It was the shot that won me the
tournament.
``In order to win here, you need to
return, and that was also a great shot. I was
hitting and passing quite well. But this is
the best I think I've ever served in my
career.''
Sampras, getting better with age at 25, is
changing one of the basic elements of tennis.
He's so quick to the net with his big strides
that he no longer hits approach shots, even
when he's receiving. As he did so many times
against Pioline, Sampras crushes returns with
his backhand, gets to the net, and waits to
slap away volleys - if the ball comes back.
In a final devoid of drama, or even the
comic relief of a streaker like last year,
Sampras broke Pioline early in each set.
After a typically brutal backhand return that
flew past Pioline for a break to 2-1, Sampras
fairly skipped off court with long, loping
strides like a big kid in the playground.
This is where Sampras shows his
personality, and if it is muted compared to
the likes of Andre Agassi or John McEnroe, he
couldn't care less.
``I know I'm not Dave Letterman when it
comes to interviews,'' Sampras said. ``But
the way I am on the court is the way I've
been my whole life, and it's the way I'll
continue to be. Very much to myself and a lot
like Borg was. ``That's why when Andre and I
were competing, he was the one who had the
emotion. And McEnroe was Borg's rival. That's
what the game needs right now. But I don't
plan on changing for anybody because that's
who I am.''
He held serve at love three times in the
first set, and yielded a total of only four
points in his two other service games that
set. In the second set, he went one better,
dropping just three points on serve. The only
time Sampras found himself even close to
trouble was in the third set, when he
double-faulted and faced his only break point
of the match in the eighth game. He quickly
snuffed out that threat with two service
winners and a volley that gave him a 5-3
lead.
Pioline staved off defeat for a few
moments with the help of his 13th ace.
Sampras then put him out of his misery with a
service winner on match point that he
celebrated by raising his hands and placing
his fist on his heart as he faced his new
girlfriend, actress Kimberly Williams.
Pioline, the first Frenchman in the
Wimbledon final since Yvon Petra won in 1946,
played well enough to beat almost anyone, or
at least give them a good match. Against
Sampras, who has now beaten him in all eight
of their meetings, including the 1993 U.S.
Open final, Pioline was simply outclassed.
``He's playing very good, but he's not
God,'' said Pioline. True enough, but
no mortal could have served better.
Sampras is as much a student of tennis
history as he is a maker of it. He knows his
place among the game's greats, and what he
must do to be considered the best.
His 10 major titles tied him with Bill
Tilden for the most by an American, and he
trails only Borg and Laver (11 each) and
Emerson (12). The one gap in Sampras' trophy
chest is the French Open, and he would dearly
love to fill that. But even if some would
refuse to call him the best because of his
lack of success on clay, he's building a good
case for that claim with all his other
triumphs.
``To have won 10 by the age of 25, I never
really thought that would happen,'' said
Sampras, who captured the Australian Open
title in January. ``This is what's going to
keep me in the game, I hope, for a lot of
years - the major tournaments.''
Winning his 10th major boosted Sampras'
hopes of adding No. 11 at the U.S. Open in
two months and closing in on the record.
``It just makes me feel that 12 is
something that's so much more realistic, that
I can break the record. So to be put into the
same sentence as a Laver and those guys ...
you can't have a more flattering comparison.
This is what's important to me.''
Sampras matched the Wimbledon total of
Laver, his childhood hero, and only Borg's
five straight (1976-80) is better in the
modern era. The Wimbledon record is seven
titles by William Renshaw in the 1880s.
``I don't like thinking of myself in terms
of history,'' said Sampras, who won $697,000
to hike his career earnings to $27.1 million.
``I feel like I'm still in the middle of my
career and it's not over yet.''
What's most important, he said, is his
longevity in the game.
``I'm going to keep on playing until there
comes a day where I feel like I'm not going
to be in contention for slams,'' he said.
``That will be the day that I'll stop. I have
a lot of respect for what Boris (Becker) did,
but I am nowhere near that day.''
Copyright © 1997 The
Seattle Times Company
Back to top
Wimbledon
commentary: Sampras might be best ever
by Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press
WIMBLEDON, England - Quick, somebody, get
the man a rival. A foil. An enemy. A villain.
Get him a Wilt Chamberlain for his Bill
Russell, a Pharaoh to his Moses, a Lex Luthor
to his Superman. Otherwise, Pete Sampras, the
greatest tennis player we have ever seen,
might skip over our horizon without anyone
realizing what a remarkable talent he is.
He won his fourth Wimbledon title
yesterday, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, in less time than
it takes to play the first half of a football
game. Straight sets. Never surrendered his
serve. The reaction at Centre Court? I think
I caught the Duke of Kent nodding off.
Four Wimbledons puts Sampras, 25, ahead of
John McEnroe, Boris Becker and John Newcombe,
and if you add those jewels to his four U.S.
Open and two Australian Open crowns . . .
well, let's cut to the chase: Three more
Grand Slam titles, and Sampras will rank,
trophy-wise, as the best there ever was.
The best there ever was. Read that again.
The best there ever was. I'm repeating it
because they don't say that about too many
people. Yet when they say it about Sampras,
it seems to drip off his back like water off
a British umbrella.
"He leaves you no air to
breathe," said the man he vanquished
yesterday, Cedric Pioline of France, who had
as much chance of victory as he did of
turning a croissant into a tuna.
(Besides, and I don't mean to digress
here, but it's pretty hard to get behind a
guy named Cedric. Hearing fans yell,
"You da man, Cedric!" just didn't
cut it.)
But back to his comment about Sampras. He
leaves you no air to breathe. That's pretty
impressive coming from an opponent, no? So
why did so many fans leave Wimbledon with an
empty feeling, as if they'd run out of cream
before they'd run out of strawberries?
Well, consider the drama of the match. You
want me to skip to the highlight? I mean the
real heart-thumping moment? Here it is. Third
set. Break point for Pioline. That's to break
one game of Sampras' serve. Not to win the
match. Not to win a set. Just to break his
serve.
And it didn't happen. Sampras - who later
confessed to a momentary lapse in
concentration (perhaps he was trying to
remember whom he was playing) - stormed back
with two service winners and an easy volley
winner.
Danger over.
Let's face it, Sampras had a run for the
ages at this Wimbledon. He blistered everyone
he played. He lost only two games on his
serve, and more than half of his serves never
got returned. And people shrugged it off?
This proves Sampras needs a regular enemy,
if only to give a measuring stick for his
excellence. Jimmy Connors had Bjorn Borg, and
Borg had McEnroe. Ali had Frazier, the Lakers
had the Celtics. But for his four Wimbledon
titles, Sampras has beaten four different
players.
"In the United States, you do need a
rivalry," he said. "When you have
one, people who don't follow tennis will
follow it. Two times in my career, I thought
I had some real rivalries kicking up. Once
against Boris, and once against (Andre)
Agassi.
"But it's so difficult in the 1990s.
There are so many great players, and the game
is so much deeper. It's hard to have the same
people coming through all the time."
But if Sampras can do it, why can't
someone else? Becker and Stefan Edberg met in
three straight Wimbledon finals from 1988-90.
McEnroe, Borg and Connors - in some
combination - met five times in six years for
the title from 1977-82.
And you remember those guys more. It isn't
- as some critics say - Sampras' deadly
serious personality. It isn't that he fails
to throw tantrums or that, as he said,
"I'm not David Letterman during
interviews."
Hey, Borg was as boring as they come. But
he had McEnroe to contrast him. Edberg was as
stoic as grass, but Becker's emotion helped
shade him.
"That's why when Andre and I are
competing, it works," Sampras said.
"He's the flamboyant, emotional one, and
I can be me."
Of course, Agassi - who has met Sampras
three times in Grand Slam finals, by far the
closest contemporary Sampras has had - bagged
out of Wimbledon again this year. He's either
too hurt, too distracted, too in love or too
nuts to be consistent. It's not Sampras'
fault that history gave him a head case for a
challenger.
"Do you ever see yourself changing
the way you are on the court?" a Brit
asked him. "You know, playing with more
emotion yourself?"
"Well," Sampras said, "my
way has worked so far."
Say that again. Sampras is not only a
model of laser-like focus, he's fluid in all
strokes.
It wasn't just serving that won him
Wimbledon. He hit passing shots that kicked
up chalk on the baseline, and he came to the
net brilliantly. On one memorable play
yesterday, Pioline had Sampras running and
smacked a forehand down the line. Sampras had
no business getting to it, but he lunged -
pure instinct - and the ball shot almost
horizontally across the court for a winner.
"Sometimes," Sampras said of
that play, "your muscle memory takes
over."
Muscle memory? You mean his body does that
on its own? No wonder Becker quit Wimbledon
for good after losing to Sampras in the
quarterfinals, saying he could no longer
compete with the likes of Sampras.
Given the way Sampras is going, the shock
isn't that Becker retired, but that more
players didn't.
Oh well, as they say in England, there you
have it. Thus ends another Wimbledon
fortnight, one in which familiar patterns
repeated: It rained, players whined, and it
all managed to finish on time, as usual, with
yet another teenage sensation capturing the
women's title - Martina Hingis - and Sampras
going home with the big trophy once more.
The only thing lacking is what I've been
suggesting, a rival for Sampras, because he
truly is as wonderful a player as there has
been. Strong, fast, resilient, intense. In
fact, it is only because he is as great as he
is, and we need to do whatever it takes to
show it, that I would even dare ask the
following question:
Does Dennis Rodman play tennis?
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