He loses lunch, but wins match
By Steve Wilstein, Associated Press writer
September 6, 1996
NEW YORK -- Exhausted to the point of sickness, barely able to move, forced to lean on his racket like a crutch between rallies, Pete Sampras survived an epic ordeal yesterday against indefatigable Alex Corretja.
Sampras vomited on court in the middle of the fifth-set tiebreaker and looked as if he would pass out. Yet somehow he summoned the strength to keep going and set up a second match-point with his 25th ace. Then he watched in utter relief as the Spaniard double-faulted to end one of the most dramatic matches in U.S. Open history, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).
Corretja collapsed to his knees and Sampras slumped onto the net before they embraced each other tenderly amid a long standing ovation after the 4-hour, 9-minute struggle -- the longest match of the tournament.
Moments later, Sampras hugged his girlfriend, Delaina Mulcahy.
"This one was for Tim. Tim was there with me," he whispered to her, referring to his late coach, Tim Gullikson, who died in May.
Mulcahy said: "I feel good that Tim will be with us the rest of the way."
Everyone who watched this match had to be cringing as Sampras limped around the court, wobbling dizzily at times, trying to stay on his feet, and playing on and on. He vomited at the back of the court at 1-1 in the final tiebreaker, received a time delay warning, but came right back to win the next point.
"A lot of people saw things today that most won't see in a lifetime," Paul Annacone, Sampras' current coach, said. "Alex Corretja should get a lot of credit for what he did. What Pete did, there are no words. It was exhilarating to watch.
"The guy is pretty special, and special people do special things."
Even Corretja, who broke down and sobbed after the match of his life slipped away, was amazed by Sampras.
"I saw him at a couple of times really tired, but he was more dangerous then," the No. 31-ranked Corretja said. "At 3-3 in the tiebreaker, he served at 124 mph. If he was tired, he can't serve like that."
But that's exactly what Sampras did before going off to receive an intravenous drip for treatment of dehydration. He left more than an hour later, at 9:20 p.m., wearing sunglasses in the night and saying nothing about the match.
Sampras will have to find a way to recover by Saturday when he plays in the semifinals against Goran Ivanisevic, who sent two-time champion Stefan Edberg into retirement at night, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) after his record 54th consecutive Grand Slam tournament.
Edberg fought off four match-points before finally succumbing on the fifth, tapping a backhand half-volley into the net on Ivanisevic's crisp return of serve.
Ivanisevic, a first-round loser the past two years, served 26 aces against Edberg and will present Sampras with a much different problem in the semis. If nothing else, Sampras can look forward to shorter points.
Under a burning sun and, hours later, under the lights in the cool night, Corretja played gloriously to wear down Sampras.
The match packed almost as much drama and emotion as Sampras' victory over Jim Courier last year in the Australian Open, when Gullikson first was diagnosed with brain cancer. Sampras played through his tears that night, yet found a way to win.
And in many ways, this match also revived memories of his loss in the fourth round of the 1994 U.S. Open against Jaime Yzaga, when Sampras limped off in sheer exhaustion, his feet blistered and bleeding.
Sampras has a history of illness and heat exhaustion. He was sick to his stomach the night before he lost to Edberg in the 1992 Open final. He fell ill at the 1994 Lipton tournament, and Andre Agassi, in a gesture of sportsmanship, gave him an extra hour to recover. Sampras won. At the French Open this year, Sampras lost the first two sets to Courier, looked wobbly, yet won in five sets.
Sampras, broken in the first game of the match against Corretja, seemed in control when he broke back to 5-5 and took the tiebreaker in the middle of a run of 21 straight points that he won on serve.
That control suddenly disappeared in two crucial lapses when Corretja broke him in the 12th games of both the second and third sets.
Sampras couldn't find a way to break Corretja at all in those sets, and the Spaniard kept pounding balls from behind the baseline, making Sampras strain for every point except aces and service winners. Though not a big server in terms of speed, Corretja's accuracy and kicks enabled him to equal Sampras' 25 aces.
Corretja finally yielded on serve at 1-1 in the fourth set when Sampras began showing signs of exhaustion. Sampras bent over wearily, gasping for breath after gaining a second break-point, then recovered and put away a forehand volley to take a 2-1 lead.
Sampras started to pump his fist to punctuate that little triumph, but he held back as if he didn't have the strength to do even that. He wore a look of relief and fatigue as he walked slowly to his chair and sank down. A trainer asked him if he was all right. Sampras shook his head, and said he felt queasy. On the next changeover, the trainer returned to give Sampras some medicine.
In the fifth set, neither player yielded serve, and it was incredible to see Sampras, rubbery-legged one moment, serving at 125 mph the next. He knew he couldn't play long rallies, so he had to try to win with his serve, and in that set he came up with six aces.
"What we saw at the end of the match was his body let out," said Dr. Brian Hainline, a tournament physician.
"With his stoic personality, you wouldn't think he'd have the flair for the dramatic," Annacone said of Sampras. "When he gets through a match like that, all of us feel, Tim has a smile on his face, watching. Tim is still part of it, in a spiritual way. It's been a tough 18 months. There's a lot of emotion. I've never met anyone like Pete who can stay focused and ignore distractions to the level he can."
Corretja had one chance to win the match when he led 7-6 in the fifth-set tiebreaker. He had just fought off a match-point in Sampras' favor at 6-5, and now Corretja stood waiting to receive.
Sampras paused, leaning on his racket, then cracked a serve that Corretja kept in play. They got into a rally and Corretja drilled a forehand crosscourt that looked like a winner. Sampras lunged to his right, caught up to the ball and punched away a forehand volley to make it 7-7.
"Maybe if I played down the line, I win it. I don't know," said Corretja, searching for a way to explain how he let this match get away or how Sampras stayed in it.
He saw Sampras staggering, yet hitting an ace on his second serve to make it 8-7 in the tiebreaker.
That Corretja should lose on a double-fault, only his third of the match, was almost too much for him to contemplate.
"It was probably the best match and the worst one," he said. "I was playing for too much today. I have to feel happy because I almost knocked out the No. 1 in the world. It is really difficult, really disappointing, because you feel like you got it, and suddenly it escapes."
another article, from Daily Beacon Staff Writer
September 9 issue, 1996
Are you looking for a role model in the sports arena, since Charles Barkley took himself out of the running with his commercials for Nike which he claimed, "I am not a role model!" How about making it professional tennis player Pete Sampras.
Sampras, a star since the early 90s, has personified the outlook of a role model. He has been in the public eye for many years and has yet to have any negative press.
In a sports world with many stars who constantly make a scene of themselves and think they don't make enough money, Sampras is a rarity. He doesn't wear flashy clothes, never makes a show of himself and quietly goes about his business.
Although his temperament frustrates some tennis fans, Sampras continually stays the same. He never gives into the spotlight and becomes a different person.
His courage throughout his career has captured many fans' imaginations. A good example of this occurred in early 1996 at the Australian Open when he fought off tears caused by the death of his coach, Tim Gullickson, and continued the match until the end.
Another example of his true grit and determination which we all would like to emulate came last week at the U.S. Open. Sampras went down two sets to one and already drained, he won the fourth set. In the fifth set, opponent Alex Corretja, a 23-year-old Spaniard, forced him to the limit.
Playing the best tennis of his life, Corretja hit every line and rarely made a mistake. Sampras refused to let down and have his serve broken, and forced a tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker, Sampras, stripped of all his fluids and energy, became sick and vomited. Leaning on his racket, nearly the whole tiebreaker, Sampras continued to fight. On a very important point when the fans thought he was spent, he aced Corretja on a second serve.
Barely on his feet, Sampras went on to win the tiebreaker, 9-7, and prove his critics wrong. In this incredible show of courage, Pete Sampras solidified his right to be a true role model.
Rarely will people admit sports stars are role models, but the fact is, there are people who many children and even many adults look up to. And in my opinion, since this is true, Sampras would be a ideal choice for a role model.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Playing to the Crowd
By Brian Cleary, Assistant Editor
Tennis magazine, November 1996
Pete Sampras won his first U.S. Open as a 19-year old back in 1990,
but it was only this year, at age 25, that he became a champion New
Yorkers could call their own, one viewed with the reverence in New
York previously reserved for the tournament's most beloved
figures:
Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe.
You knew Sampras had broken a barrier when he turned and threw up at
the end of his side of the court in the fifth-set tie-break against
Corretja and then just walked away, as if that was the way tennis is
played these days. That tie-break alone brought Sampras five
separate standing ovations. "I hate to lose, and I do whatever I
can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly," Sampras said the next
day.
After the match, Sampras was holed up in a tiny room underneath the
Stadium court for an hour and a half trying to regain his strength,
with a media frenzy just two security guards and a door away. When
the door opened and Sampras was led out of the room to meet a
waiting car, he was still holding a piece of gauze over his forearm
because of the two IV's he had been given to restore his
body's
energy. The bright lights of TV cameras, seven in all, were pointed
right in his face as he emerged.
A younger Sampras might have been overwhelmed by this, might have
seen it all as a nuisance. But this year, Sampras met the bright
lights with a big smile, one befitting a star of the magnitude of
Mac or Jimbo.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Man Who Saved Tennis From Itself
By Peter Bodo
Tennis magazine, January 1997
I'm not sure that tennis ever needed saving, but going on the
assumption that it did, I'll say this: If Pete Sampras did not
save
the game in 1996, then tennis is beyond salvation.
If anyone who paid even cursory attention to the climax of the Grand
Slam season at the U.S. Open still thinks that Sampras lacks
personality, or that tennis is boring, or that the game
"needs" a
new Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe, I have a little advice for you:
give up on tennis. Switch to pay-per-view broadcasts of Ultimate
Fighting. Delve into the secret world of snuff movies. Drive
around waiting for a horrible car crash to occur.
If major corporations can continually face the painful reality
of "downsizing," surely the tennis establishment can see the
impudence of its desire to be all things to all people in an
endless – and fruitless – attempt to capture Everyman.
It took a classy gut to convince us that it's about time that
tennis
stopped feeling guilty about being a classy sport. Sampras's
performance in 1996 was one of the great sports stories of our
time. His quarterfinal encounter at Flushing Meadows with Alex
Correjta has been deemed "unforgettable" by everyone who saw
it, but
it was just part of a larger, richer drama that transpired over the
course of an entire year, ending only when Sampras finally beat
Michael Chang in the title match. It was the first Grand Slam event
Sampras won since the death in early 1996 of his coach and close
friend Tim Gullikson.
Yet even in Sampras's finest moment, in that touching,
long-awaited
and bitterly fought-for moment of expiation, there were critics.
Those who said that the match between Sampras and Correjta
demonstrated that for a world-class athlete, Sampras was
embarrassingly out of shape. Those who said they were
getting "tired" of all the talk about gullikson, implying
that a
marginally fit Sampras was using Gullikson's death, and the
emotions
and pressures it created, as a cop-out every time he lost an
important tennis match. It's an ugly idea, but even that kind
should stand some examination.
The first complaint was interesting in that it rested on a
remarkable fallacy. Any reasonably fit tennis player – even an
avid
club player – can play a five-set match under the conditions that
prevailed during the Smpras-Corretja encounter. If Sampras was
merely out of shape, he would have gradually lost a step on the way
to his forehand, or been a sticky moment late in getting to that
half volley. Out-of-shape athletes lose energy and power the same
way that leaky tires lose air. As a match goes on, they gradually
go flat.
Against Correta, Sampras did not go flat, he broake an axle. That
he was able to limp on and win was a remarkable feat of will. Why
Sampras broke down – and he has done so a number of occasions
–
raises some interesting questions and issues about his future.
The second complaint was callous and shallow. By the time the 1996
U.S. Open rolled around, the thing Sampras needed more than anything
else was a sense of what now travels under the name
"closure."
After making a valiant effort at the first Grand Slam meeting after
the death of Gullikson, a listless Sampras lost to Yevgeny
Kafelnikov in the semifinals of the French Open. A few weeks later,
he was upset by an inspired Richard Krajicek at Wimbledon.
All along, everybody said that after an appropriated period of
mourning, Sampras had to get on with his life. And everyone,
including Sampras, knew that to be true. But because of the
relationship between Sampras and Gullikson, "appropriate
period"
meant one thing and one thing only: the length of time that it took
Sampras to win a Grad Slam title in honor of his former coach.
So what now for Sampras, in 1997? He is 25, and he won his first
Grand Slam event at Flushing Meadow in 1990. Physically, he is
still in his prime. But the record book shows that very few
champions of the Open era were dominant players for longer than six
years. McEnroe played on the pro tour for a full 15 years, but he
appeared in all the Grand Slam finals he ever contested between 1979
and 1985. Bjorn Borg won 10 of his 12 Grand Slam titles in a seven-
year span. Connors had five extraordinary years (1974 – '78)
backed
with a remarkable resurgence in two later years, 1982 and '83.
Even
Ivan Lendl, an iron man of the Opera era, only won Grand Slam events
between 1984 and 1990.
Basically, life at the very top is tough and just weird enough to be
unsustainable. After five or six years there, most champions have
reaped all of the rewards and exhausted all of the challenges. And
that's just where Sampras may have a great opportunity denied to
his
illustrious predecessors. None of them were hampered by the
inexplicable breakdowns (vs. Corretja) or shutdowns (vs. Kafelnikov)
that Sampras sometimes experiences. The challenge of identifying
and overcoming the source of those tendencies may be impossible or
unappealing to Sampras. Or it may be just the thing he needs to
catch a second wind at a crucial time, to shatter the six-year limit
on greatness.
"Something must happen inside of Pete," surmised Nick
Bollettieri
after the Correta match. "he must tighten up in a way that
affects
everything, including his muscles and his concentration.. I believe
he trains hard, and Todd Snyder (Sampras's trainer) knows what
he's
doing. There's definitely a mystery there somewhere."
Tim Gullikson's surviving brother Tom is a little closer to the
Sampras camp, and he is surprisingly outspoken about the issue:
"I'd
love to see Pete dedicate himself to getting into shape in a way
similar to what Lendl did just before his great years. There was a
lot of pressure on Pete this year (1996), but fitness is one of the
tools you can use to deal with that pressure.
"You have to be very self-motivated to achieve maximum fitness.
It
has nothing to do with talent, nothing to do with athletic ability.
It's just hard work that anybody can do. Most important,
it's
something that Pete can and should do. Not for Tim, but only for
himself."
Actually, I think Pete should do it for me. And for you. And for
tennis fans everywhere. It isn't as if Sampras hasn't done
enough
for the game already, but wouldn't it be great to see him extend
the
period of his greatness for a few more years? Tennis may not have a
Connors or a McEnroe these days, but it does have a Sampras. And to
my way of thinking, that's about all that it needs.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sports Illustrated
Issue date: September 16, 1996
He took it slow, scanning the hollering crowd from left to right, section by section of ramshackle Louis Armstrong Stadium, knowing he would find the face he needed to see. Pete Sampras stood with his back to the net, looking fresh, grinning. Next to him, beaten and forgotten, Michael Chang shuffled his feet and waited. Both had said kind words about the fans and each other in the opening moments of the men's singles award ceremony of the U.S. Open, and soon some man in a suit would hand Sampras a $600,000 check and a trophy. But the 1996 U.S. Open champion and world's No. 1 player wasn't thinking of that just yet, because he had found Tom Gullikson in the crowd. The two locked eyes. Sampras nodded, Gullikson nodded back, and in that flickering exchange was merely everything important, every truth about caring and loss and letting go. "It's been very difficult for both of us, more for him—Tim was his twin brother," Sampras said afterward. "But I knew what he was thinking and he knew what I was thinking. We just looked at each other, and I knew. Those are the moments that are about more than just tennis."
It was then that Sampras understood, maybe for the first time: It's over. For on Sunday, Sampras didn't just dominate the world's second-best tennis player, or simply win his fourth—and most dramatic—U.S. Open title, or merely elevate the measure of his greatness with an eighth Grand Slam championship. No, with his 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 blowout of Chang, his first win in a major since his coach and best friend, Tim Gullikson, died of brain cancer in May, Sampras also released himself from the emotionally exhausting task of living out a sports clich?: winning a Grand Slam title in Gullikson's memory. He had failed in June at the French Open, the one major he has never won, and he had failed in July at Wimbledon, and only an almost mythic, five-set performance against Alex Corretja of Spain had kept him from failing at Flushing Meadows.
Coming into this Open, those closest to Sampras could sense the strain. "He's got to get to the point where he's playing for himself," Tom Gullikson said. "It's an emotional roller coaster playing for other people, other causes. It just puts extra pressure on him. And he's had to deal with Tim's situation in such a public way."
That's the strangest part. Sampras, never given to Connors-like histrionics on the court or Becker-esque philosophizing off it, calls himself a stoic. Yet more than Steffi Graf, who amid a soap opera of personal difficulties rolled to her 21st Grand Slam title over an outclassed Monica Seles—and perhaps more than any other athlete in memory—Sampras has displayed his emotions to millions. At the 1995 Australian Open, he wept during a match after learning Tim Gullikson was ill; on court at the '95 U.S. Open, he dedicated his win to him; in Paris this year, he looked to the sky and sensed Gullikson looking back. The quest had a touch of the macabre, but for someone who is at his most eloquent on a tennis court, it made sense. Sampras tried to give a eulogy at Gullikson's funeral and couldn't finish. But when Sampras stands between the lines, he rarely has a problem finishing. "He does live his life out on the courts," says his coach, Paul Annacone. "He doesn't show much emotion except when he's competing."
So it was that as his game gained momentum through this fortnight, Sampras grabbed hold of a tournament that set new standards for U.S. Open chaos. Flushing Meadows has always been the most unruly of Grand Slam tournaments, a noisome m?lange of screaming jets, outrageously priced food, cramped facilities and rude crowds. Few players will be sorry when Louis Armstrong is replaced next year with a state-of-the-art $234 million facility under construction next door. "It would take me 100 years to get used to this place," said Thomas Muster of Austria, the world's No. 3-ranked man.
The stadium seemed determined to go out with a final, anarchic bang. Before anyone took the court, the Open was awash in controversy over an abrupt change in the men's seeding system. French Open champ Yevgeny Kafelnikov, then ranked fourth but seeded seventh, pulled out in a snit, and other players threatened to follow suit. Then New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani boycotted the tournament, first because of boneheaded worries that public safety was being endangered by the rerouting of planes to and from neighboring LaGuardia Airport, and then, in protest of the high prices. Next, Muster's coach, Ronnie Leitgeb, called tournament director Jay Snyder "the head of cheating" when Muster was denied a private car, off-site security guards and preferred seating for his entourage. It continued: Graf's father, Peter, went on trial for tax evasion, the German press staked out her New York City apartment, and Steffi bulled into the final nonetheless. Andre Agassi looked and—against Chang in the semifinals—played like a stevedore found sleepwalking in his nightshirt and ended the '96 Slam campaign amid all the old questions about his competitive heart. Fergie showed up.
But when Sampras met Corretja in the quarterfinals, everything else faded. It was, simply, one of the most spectacular matches in tennis history. Expected to cruise over the 31st-ranked Corretja after having bulldozed Aussie phenom Mark Philippoussis in three sets, Sampras found himself on the final, steamy Thursday battling to stay on his feet. With Corretja stinging him with a superb forehand and making few errors, Sampras fell behind two sets to one and tried to revive himself and settle his stomach with a few gulps of Pepsi. By the fifth set he was severely dehydrated, and when the four-hour, nine-minute ordeal was over, he would need nearly a half gallon of intravenous fluids. Never before, Sampras said, had he felt so bad.
At 1-1 in the fifth-set tiebreaker, Sampras staggered behind the baseline and threw up. Finally, with vomit streaming from his nose, he served and won the point, but the match was far from over. Alternately sending his eyes skyward or bellowing in pain, Sampras looped his groundstrokes and served well enough to stay even. At 6-7 in the tiebreaker, he saved a match point with a desperate, full-extension forehand volley. "I didn't believe it," Corretja would say afterward.
That only set up the match's most remarkable moment. Ready to give in, Sampras popped a 76-mph first serve toward the deuce court that went just long. "After that, I wanted to get it over with," Sampras said. "I didn't want to get in a rally." So he gambled. He tossed the ball up and cracked a 90-mph second serve to Corretja's forehand at so sharp an angle that it stunned both men: ace. "I couldn't believe it," Sampras said.
Corretja couldn't recover. On his subsequent serve, at match point against him, his second ball sailed long, but Sampras wasn't sure it was out. For an instant his face crumpled. "The best sound I've heard in years was that Cyclops going off," he said.
The next best came right after, when Sampras raised his hands and the stadium shook with a girder-trembling roar. It was a defining victory for Sampras. Minutes after the match, John McEnroe found Sampras's girlfriend, Delaina Mulcahy, and blurted out, "I don't have that much guts."
Until the final moment Sampras had maintained his composure. He had even begun to believe that he could get past Gullikson's death without winning a Slam title. But that wasn't likely. From late 1991 until the '95 Australian Open, Sampras never made a move at the Slams without Tim. He won four titles with him as coach, and now, when he arrives in Melbourne, Paris, London or New York City, "it reminds me," Sampras said. "I'm in the locker room, and all the boys are around, and Tom's there, and it reminds me of Tim. It kind of rekindles the hurt."
The match with Corretja reminded him that it was Gullikson who taught him to compete this way. Afterward, as Sampras slumped in a cramped holding room with his agent, coach and trainer, Mulcahy rushed in. She saw Sampras's face and he saw hers, and all the hurt came back. As Sampras began to cry, the others hustled out, leaving him and Mulcahy. "This is for Tim," Sampras sobbed as they hugged. "This is for Tim."
Her father sits in a jail cell in Mannheim, Germany, on trial for tax evasion. Her mother, Heidi, sits across the table from her in the Open clubhouse. It is Sunday night, after the finals, and there is a glass of champagne in front of her. "You go through different emotions when you win," Graf says. "Sometimes you feel like crying. Sometimes you feel like screaming. Today I was definitely in the screaming mode. I was so happy to play good tennis. I didn't think it was possible."
Who did? Graf almost didn't enter the Open. She came into the tournament ailing from a calf injury and knowing that the pressure would mount once Peter's trial began during the second week of play. Steffi's concentration was so frayed that her coach, Heinz Gunthardt, half expected she would lose early; always, her impending return to Germany hovered. "It's going to be a not-too-pleasant time," Graf said. "That's why I treasure what I've had the last few days. It won't last so long."
But her win here should, she says, give her strength. Graf held off challenges from what Swiss sensation Martina Hingis calls "the new generation" of women's tennis, sampling and discarding both Hingis and the other teenager of the moment, Anna Kournikova of Russia. Then, before anyone could get excited about her first meeting with Monica Seles since last year's classic final, Graf had steamed past Seles 7-5, 6-4, to finish the year as the undisputed queen of the game.
"I tried to change it," Hingis said of this year's rerun of the 1995 final, "but it didn't work." She came close. Apple-cheeked and hot-tempered, she became the first 15-year-old to make the Open semis since Jennifer Capriati in '91. Hingis tested Graf throughout their first set, reaching set point five times before running out of gas. Her precocious all-court game and seeming normalcy make her the tour's hot young thing. "Martina is able to live with being that good," says her mother and coach, Melanie Zogg. "She's always been Number 1. Anything else would be funny."
In fact Hingis was able to pressure Graf more consistently than Seles was. "It was a weird ending," said Seles.
It was, indeed, one of the strangest ever in a Grand Slam final. Not only did a storm resembling the Apocalypse come churning over the lip of the stadium with Graf serving for the match, but at one point Seles had to stop Graf from serving because Seles was overcome by the giggles. The sound of a man singing Happy Birthday—badly—was drifting from the grandstand. There, Tom Gullikson was receiving his $9,500 check for winning, with Dick Stockton, the 45-and-over doubles title. Tom and Tim turned 45 Sunday.
Sampras didn't wake up Sunday thinking about Tim Gullikson. He woke up thinking about Chang. He also thought about how much he loves the emptiness of the locker room on the final day of a Grand Slam event. "The first week is hectic," he said. "You can't get a shower, there's no room. But each day, it's clearing out, clearing out, and the last weekend, when you walk in the locker room, no one bothers you. I love it."
He sat in the locker room early in the afternoon, the same place where Alex Corretja wept after losing to Sampras in the quarterfinals, where Goran Ivanisevic smashed and kicked his racket after buckling to him in the semis, where Chang would later come to pull himself together after the final. But Sampras was alone now, watching football, remembering. When the rain interrupted his match, Sampras moved to the same cramped room he had collapsed in after beating Corretja. He talked through the nearly three-hour wait with his coach and trainer. Finally, he walked onto the court with Chang and, one hour and 59 minutes later, walked off with a big piece of his life back.
"Tim's still with me," Sampras said late Sunday night, "but Tom made a good point. I can play for myself now."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Flushing Meadows, New York
September 7, 1996
P. SAMPRAS/G. Ivanisevic 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-3
An interview with: PETE SAMPRAS (from ASAP Sports)
PETE SAMPRAS: It's over.
Q. So, has the crash of '96 ended?
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, this definitely saved my year. I mean, first two sets today I thought I played about as well as I could. Got off to a great start. Set the tone. What can I say? I mean, these past two weeks I have played my share of great tennis and poor tennis and got through the Corretja match and I never thought I would be here as the winner. But I thought hard and played the best match of the tournament today against Michael, and so it really saves my year. It really does. It wasn't a bad year, but this will definitely make the rest of the '96 season very enjoyable to play.
Q. Matchpoint, you put your arms in the air and you looked to the sky. What were you thinking at that point, Pete?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, today is Tim's birthday. He would have been 45 today and I was thinking about him all day today and all during the match and things he told me to do on the court and I still felt his spirit and even though he is not with us, he is still very much in my heart and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his help and it was nice. I saw Tom when I was holding up the trophy and that was a nice moment. So, I am just glad it is over. I really -- just didn't really feel like playing another set.
Q. What are one or two things that Tim would have said to you or you thought about before going on?
PETE SAMPRAS: He has always thought, as far as technically on the court, playing Michael, really set the tone. His second serve is attackable and return and smack some forehands because it is one of my best shots. That is something he would have told me. He seen him play for so many years that he knows. I still remember things he has told me, so that would be one thing that he would have said.
Q. When you beat Corretja, did you at that point say this is meant to be?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I thought it could have meant to be at the French, but we all know what happened there. I don't know. Whatever happened, happened. Against Ivanisevic, I felt -- I had a day off after Corretja -- maybe this was meant to be. I don't know. I mean, I have never been a big believer in fate or destiny. I just feel you go out and play and win. That is it. This year has been very difficult at times on and off the court and this really leaves a very happy thought and some really good memories here.
Q. When you won in 1990, you said you were barely conscious. What was happening? How is it different this time?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, 1990 I really - I really couldn't appreciate what it takes to win a major. I was just kind of playing on instinct and kind of in a zone for the past couple of matches. In 1990 and now over the course of the years, I know what it takes to win majors. You need to play great tennis. You need a little bit of luck on your side and back then, it was kind of like a fantasy, the way I played, kind of a dream world and now it takes a lot of hard work and dedication and after Wimbledon and it paid off.
Q. You came out so strong today, did you feel you were in a zone or...
PETE SAMPRAS: I felt -- yeah, I felt a little bit. When I got off, it was a great start. My serve was there, everything was just clicking. Those are days you just dream about, especially in a final and I knew he would come around and start playing better and he did in the third set. He served a lot better and made it tight and I played real solid tiebreaker, hit some good shots and it was one of my best matches I played in my career. I mean, Michael the way he played against Andre, I knew it was going to be a tough battle.
Q. Did you play more different -- kind or beat more different kinds of games in this tournament than in others; you beat Chang's kind of game, Ivanisevic's game?
PETE SAMPRAS: You know, it is hard to say. Each, you know, it is such a contrast playing yesterday against Goran. You don't know what he is going to do; what he is going to serve. Michael, you kind of know what to expect. He is going to be -- stay back. It is a huge contrast. I have played some Majors where I have had a lot of different styles of players, Corretja who stayed back and played kind of a clay court match. You just have to adapt and I did that well today.
Q. You look back at the history head-to-head with Michael which match do you think turned that around for you --
PETE SAMPRAS: I can't remember. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, there was a time where four, five years ago, I was having a lot of trouble against Michael. He was beating me a number of times. I don't know where I beat him. I eventually started getting a hold of his game and playing better and beat him last four, five times.
Q. Eight or nine?
PETE SAMPRAS: Eight or nine.
Q. Is this win sweet enough for you to forget all of your losses this year?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, the losses have been forgotten for quite a while. You mean what happened at Wimbledon and the French, it happened and it is over, and just try to look ahead, but, you know, my main goal when it is January 1 is to win a major title, and this is my last chance to do it and I did it. So, in a lot of ways, I didn't feel like there was a lot of pressure that my career was over after this if I didn't win it, but I'd say it is a great way to end.
Q. Was there a risk that you might have been putting too much pressure on yourself?
PETE SAMPRAS: Not really. The overall picture, I am only 25 and it is not like this is it for me. I mean, I am going to have many more Majors ahead of me and, you know, eventually work hard enough, you are going to win some, and this one is - was the most difficult. I think I have won because of the way I felt physically against Corretja and just past couple of months - this is sweet.
Q. Are you proud of yourself right now?
PETE SAMPRAS: I am, even though, I am pretty stoic. I was in the back with all the boys and real happy, and I am pumped, I really am. I felt -- I just was so glad that shot was out on matchpoint. I just wanted it to be over, you know, Michael, he doesn't give you an inch. He really doesn't. Always fights to the end and I am pumped. I am really happy.
Q. What is the schedule for the rest of the year?
PETE SAMPRAS: I have a couple of weeks off and I play some events over in Europe, Basel and Paris and Stuttgart and ATP Finals in Hannover and -- over in Europe I will be playing.
Q. Four events?
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, about four or five events.
Q. Does the fact that Michael is so stubborn make winning this that much better, that you had - that he challenged you; didn't lay down at any point?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I don't think anyone would lay down at this situation, whoever I played in the final. I mean, everyone - whoever I would play today, if it was Andre, wouldn't have laid down, but Michael especially, is a feisty player. He is so competitive and wouldn't give me a point. He is a very tough guy to beat. He makes you earn every point you win, so, you know, it is a rivalry that I have had since we were seven, eight years old growing up in California. I battled with him through the juniors and pros, and, you know, we both have come along way from the junior days and it is a rivalry that will continue, I believe. I mean, he is obviously a great player.
Q. Would it surprise you that he was just in here and he said a couple of things, one, that you are a lot older than he is - ( audience laughter)?
PETE SAMPRAS: A lot taller too.
Q. Right (audience laughter) He said that he is not going away; that he will be pursuing you for a long time. Does that surprise you?
PETE SAMPRAS: That doesn't surprise me at all. Michael earns his wins and makes his living fighting and fighting and fighting and that is his character. That is what makes him a champion and he will be around for the next five, six, seven-- ten years. So he is -- all the guys, Courier, Agassi, Martin -- just go down the list, Michael is going to be one of those guys that is going to be threatening to take the top spot and win major titles.
Q. What makes you a champion? You said that is what makes Michael a champion?
PETE SAMPRAS: I feel like I can do some things, you know, I can my serve and I can stay back and hit the forehand pretty well. I feel like, you know, I have got a pretty good all-around court game. If things aren't working well in one area, I can rely on something else. I don't know. I mean, that is something I really don't think about.
Q. Nothing just technical?
PETE SAMPRAS:
Q. Anything other than technical?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I don't know, I will let you guys conclude that.
Q. You look at your contemporaries and Michael talked about this a little bit growing up and Jim and Andre and David and him and you, yet you are the guy who has got the lion's share of the titles now. Who, going back to those junior years, who is the guy you thought was like really going to be the big player if anyone?
PETE SAMPRAS: All of them. I mean, I always felt Michael and Andre, especially Andre when he was growing up in the juniors by far, of the other guys, he was the most talented; just a matter of him putting it together and Michael -- I didn't know Michael was going to win the French. I thought maybe at such a young age and I think the fact that we had each other to play against and the competition, you know, it really made us better players. We grew up together battling, but I would have to say, you know, all those guys you mentioned, I expected to be in the top 10, top 20 and -- but it was a good rivalry.
Q. Do you think no matter what happens this year you are pretty much No. 1 on the year; you can relax?
PETE SAMPRAS: At this point the ranking can just -- you know, playing today the ranking was up for grabs and I wanted the title. The title is so much more important to me than the ranking. You know, so whatever happens the rest of the year, if I am ended No. 2 or No. 3, I have achieved what I wanted to achieve this year and that was to win a major and so that is it.
Q. Michael was saying that there is always a lucky shot somewhere along the way. He cited Becker's net cord against Rostagno in 1989. Would you put it down to that second serve ace?
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, that was against Corretja?
Q. Yeah.
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, that was the single shot that I don't know where that came from. I think it came from the man upstairs.
Q. Tim?
PETE SAMPRAS: Tim. Came from Tim. That shot, I will never forget and the reaction of the crowd was awesome. I will never forget those moments when I really could feel the crowd chanting my name Pete and to win, that was awesome. You know, just decided I really didn't want to play the point. I wanted to hit a wide side and it went a lot better than I thought it would.
Q. Understanding that you have been concentrating on winning the title, have you started to get a feel for how intrigued people were with that Corretja match? They are still talking about it.
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, I purposely, the day after the match, I didn't come out to the site. I didn't really -- unfortunately for you guys -- didn't want to talk about it because I wanted to prepare for Goran, but, you know, everyone has been talking about it and just with the crowd and the vomiting and all that stuff, I guess it was dramatic (audience laughter).
Q. That is a word.
PETE SAMPRAS: So I don't know what to say, I mean, maybe over the next couple of years I will reflect on and see the tape of the match and appreciate it a little bit more than I do now.
Q. Today you came out a half an hour before the match began; hit some balls before the squeegees were even put away. Were you chomping at the bit before you got going and did that help you get such a good start?
PETE SAMPRAS: I got down to the referee's room. I always do that before the match. I was sitting there 2, 3 hours watching the ballgame. You are cooped up all day not really doing anything, it is good to get out and get some fresh air; hit some balls; move around, kind of break a little sweat. I did that. I don't know if it helped me get off to a great start, but I will do it again if it works.
Q. How many Grand Slams have you won?
PETE SAMPRAS: You should know that.
Q. I do.
PETE SAMPRAS: Eight.
Q. Do you know who is next? I'd like to get as many as I can. I'd like to be on the list.
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, that I think the fact that I have won a number of them over the past three or four years, the more I want to win them. The other titles are nice, but when it is all and said and done, you look at your career, these matches are going to stand out, the match against Agassi is going to stand out last year and all the Majors that I have won so far will stand out. It is not the money. It is not the commercials. The titles, that is what I will be remembered for and I will think about that a lot.
Q. Since you are so far ahead of your contemporaries in your Grand Slam titles, is it the old guys that are your real competition?
PETE SAMPRAS: No, everyone is competition.
Q. Is the French looming before you since it is the one major you haven't won?
PETE SAMPRAS: I rather not talk about the French (audience laughter) Yeah, I have thought about it, but once it comes around next year, I will prepare a little bit better than I did this year and now I know I can win there with the players I beat there and a surface I feel that I can play well on. I just need a little bit of luck on my side and hopefully one day I can win it. You know, it is in my thoughts, but I don't think about it a lot.
Q. Is the quarterfinal or the win tonight, in your own mind, is your winning last year a special moment --
PETE SAMPRAS: I do not think you can put the one over the other. I mean, last year was a huge moment for Andre and myself. He was the hottest player on the Tour and so much media hype and, you know, a lot of pressure at stake and they are both huge matches, you can't put one over the other. I think this one I got through some tough matches against Novak and Corretja, maybe this could be a little sweeter, but they are all big.
Q. Why does one basketball team always win 120 to 118, it seems that there is a will factor involved?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I don't know if it is so much a will. I think it is the game. I think it is the guy you are playing. I feel like my game matches up pretty well against Michael. I can serve well. I can rally with him, and Michael pretty much has to do what he does best, that is, stay back and grind and come in when he has to. The thing against Michael if you are not playing well, if you are not serving well, it is a tough day. That is, but if I am playing well, I will be dominating and setting the tone, then I believe the match will go my way, so you know, when it comes to a fifth set, you know, then it comes down to will and heart and fortunately we didn't have to go through that.
Q. You talked about the crowd Thursday night. Today it seemed a little bit dead, you were waving the racket actually for the fans to get up and cheer. Had you ever had to do that before?
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, the first couple of sets were smooth and they were trying to get Michael into the match and I could feel the crowd trying to spur him on and I just -- I am also American, so (audience laughter) but I think the crowd wanted to see more tennis, I could understand that. It was a very long day for everyone and -- but that tiebreaker was a big moment.
Q. Do you feel like you have the mental, physical and emotional stamina to play at this level and pay the price you pay for another three to five years, say?
PETE SAMPRAS: With some rest and good schedule I believe I can. There is no reason why I can't continue to work hard and even though it is an emotional grind, I do have some time off to regroup; get the batteries charged up again and, you know, prepare my schedule for the Majors and go from there. So I don't see there is no reason why I can't continue to play at this level and contend for major titles and continue to work hard.
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