No Luck of the Draw for Sampras

NEW YORK —  So much for Pete Sampras’ nice mellow summer, one originally designed to match his low-key personality.

What happened in the prelude to the U.S. Open--the first place he can catch Roy Emerson and his 12 Grand Slam singles titles--was distinctly out of character.

Sampras brought the noise in Cincinnati, angrily protesting a controversial overrule on match point against Patrick Rafter in the final. A few days later, the noise came his way--from the disgruntled crowd--at New Haven, Conn., after he lost, 6-3, 6-4, to doubles specialist Leander Paes of India.

He was supposed to spend the summer basking in the glow of his fifth Wimbledon title, not answering questions about his effort in New Haven. The latest turn came in the form of a tough U.S. Open draw, as two of the hottest players on the tour, Andre Agassi and Rafter, were placed in his half.

Agassi won back-to-back tournaments, in Washington and Los Angeles, earlier this summer, and Rafter, the defending U.S. Open champion, won successive events in Toronto and Cincinnati and kept it going by winning the Hamlet Cup on Sunday. If form holds, Sampras could play Agassi in the quarterfinals and Rafter in the semifinals.

“He got booed off the court in New Haven because he put in such a lame-looking performance,” CBS commentator Mary Carillo said. “For Pete Sampras to be heckled two weeks before the U.S. Open can’t be good for him.

“He’s got to come out alert. Knowing how Pete behaves during majors, except for the French, he will. He wants to take this seriously. His attitude is, ‘I’ve won one major, if I win another, it’s been a successful year.’ That’s how he thinks.”

Said Sampras: “We can look at it from both sides. I’ve won Grand Slams coming into them playing well and not playing well. You can’t analyze it too much.”

In other words, not many will remember New Haven if Sampras wins the U.S. Open. Before Wimbledon, Sampras seemed tired and out of sorts, answering questions about his motivation and relative lack of tournament success. He made those concerns seem frivolous a fortnight later when he won his fifth Wimbledon crown, giving him 11 Grand Slam singles titles, one behind the all-time leader Emerson.

New York is his first opportunity to tie Emerson, and he has spent the last few weeks discussing the chase.

“I don’t really think about it much,” said Sampras, who turned 27 on Aug. 12. “It’s obviously something I can’t get away from.

“The way I look at it, I’m in a great position, you know, to try to break it. I feel like I’m in the middle of my career and I’ve got a lot of good years left in me to do it.”

The strongest test could come against Rafter, who has pulled himself together at the right time. For his Open tuneup, he followed the same schedule as last year. Because of his success, he played more matches than intended.

The victories in Toronto and Cincinnati reassured Rafter that his Open success, was indeed no fluke.

“[It] is the best two weeks strung together, like the U.S. Open last year. I didn’t know if I could ever do that again,” he said. “But I’ve been able to do it. When you’re playing like this, you don’t know how to lose. It’s a funny thing. All the breaks go your way.”

Earlier this summer, Rafter did not even like discussing the defense of his U.S. Open title. Now, he is simply trying to stay calm.

“It’s important that I don’t get too excited to be at the the event because when I do get excited about something like that--I think it can really work against you,” he said. “It’s more important to keep level-headed going into a Grand Slam, not too overly confident.”

The intrigue surrounding the top spot is not limited to men’s tennis. For the first time in her year-plus hold on No. 1, 17-year-old Martina Hingis is facing a serious threat to her ranking. Not one, but two players, have a chance to overtake Hingis by winning the Open.

Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna is seeded third at the Open but will move past Lindsay Davenport for the No. 2 ranking today because she reached the New Haven final and Davenport lost in the semifinals to the resurgent Steffi Graf on Friday.

That was Davenport’s first loss since the Wimbledon quarterfinals. In between, she played a grueling schedule--winning the singles and doubles at Palo Alto and Carlsbad and the singles at Manhattan Beach. During the three-tournament winning streak, she defeated Graf, Hingis, Venus Williams, Mary Pierce and Monica Seles twice.

“I just feel so calm and in control out there on the court,” Davenport said. “I don’t ever feel rushed. I am not getting upset like I used to get.”

The only serious looming problem for Davenport is how her right wrist holds up. She said she has been suffering from a strained wrist, and needed on-court treatment during the match against Graf at New Haven.

Television commentator Tracy Austin picked Davenport to win the U.S. Open and reiterated that Hingis does not have the drive of 1997, the year she won three of the four Grand Slam events.

“The intensity is not there,” Austin said. “It doesn’t seem like life or death for her if she loses any more, like it was last year.”

The most intensity Hingis showed was when Richard Williams predicted, disparagingly, that his youngest daughter Serena would defeat Hingis at Manhattan Beach. Hingis won the quarterfinal match in straight sets.

“I haven’t seen her [Hingis] that focused for a match in a long time,” Austin said.

Serena Williams, 16, will be making her U.S. Open debut. Last year, her sister, Venus, became the first woman to reach the U.S. Open final in her debut since Pam Shriver in 1978.

Tennis Notes

Patrick Rafter defeated Felix Mantilla of Spain, 7-5 (7-3), 6-2, to win the Hamlet Cup in Commack, N.Y. . . . Michael Chang won his first title of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands at the MFS Pro Championships in Brookline, Mass.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. OPEN FACTS

* WHAT: The $14 million U.S. Open Tennis Championships.

* WHEN: Begins today.

* WHERE: USTA National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadow, N.Y.

* TV: Today, 8 a.m., USA; 4:30 p.m., USA; Highlights show 12:35 a.m. (Channels 2 and 8).

* DEFENDING CHAMPIONS: Men, Patrick Rafter; Women, Martina Hingis.

* TOP SEEDS: Men--Pete Sampras, Marcelo Rios, Patrick Rafter, Petr Korda. Women--Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jana Novotna, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

* WEB SITE: www.usopen.org.

* TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES: No. 1 Sampras vs. Marc-Kevin Goellner; Mark Woodforde vs. No. 14 Goran Ivanisevic; No. 1 Martina Hingis vs. Aleksandra Olsza; Sebastien Grosjean vs. No. 8 Andre Agassi; Serena Williams vs. Nicole Pratt.

* SOUTHLAND CONNECTION: Former UCLA star Justin Gimelstob faces former USC standout and 1995 Pac-10 singles champion Wayne Black in the first round today.

* SOUTHLAND CONNECTION II: Three of the eight wild-card entries are from Southern California: Bob Bryan (Camarillo), Taylor Dent (Newport Beach) and Andrew Park (San Marino).

HAVING A GRAND TIME

Pete Sampras, above, can tei the record for the most Grand Slam titles if he wins his fifth U.S. Open. Men with the most Grand Slam singles titles:

Roy Emerson: 12

Pete Sampras: 11

Bjorn Borg: 11

Rod Laver: 11

Bill Tilden: 10

Fred Perry: 8

Jimmy Connors: 8

Ken Rosewall: 8

Ivan Lendl: 8