Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 4, 1994 TAG: 9407040018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND LENGTH: Medium
On a steamy afternoon when the brevity of point-making made plenty of survival sense, Sampras blasted by Goran Ivanisevic in straight sets, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5), 6-0 to become the first man since Boris Becker in 1986 to successfully defend his Wimbledon title.
His immediate reaction to the victory was to douse himself with ice water, hurl his racquet into the stands, rip off his shirt and send it skyward as a souvenir. Then, with a fresh shirt in place atop his baggy shorts, Results in Scoreboard. B4 he ambled over to shake the pair of royal hands that hand over the trophy he covets most.
No pyrotechnics for Sampras, 22. Just steady progress that has rendered his the most complete game in the Open era and, quite possibly, ever.
"The Grand Slam wins I've had in the last couple years is something that's proven to people and to myself that hopefully I can go down in the history books," said Sampras, for whom winning his second Wimbledon championship and fifth Slam overall is all part of a master plan to join immortals like his role model, Rod Laver, in the record book.
"Winning the Grand Slams, that's the answer," said Sampras, whose next task is the defense of his 1993 U.S. Open title but whose hope for a 1994 Grand Slam was spoiled last month with a quarterfinal loss at the French Open.
After dissecting Ivanisevic's game with increasing efficiency, Sampras explained the ingredients that have gone into his own game in the course of an 18-month span in which virtually every opponent has routinely hailed him for playing at a level above the fray.
"You need some talent, you need some hard work, you need discipline and determination to keep on trying to get better," said Sampras, who admitted he was happy with "all categories" of his game Sunday.
"I'm No. 1, I won last year, and I want to win it again, so I've got that burning desire to keep on getting better," he said.
Sampras has compiled a 14-match unbeaten streak at Wimbledon, and his victory over Ivanisevic gave him a 12-0 record against left-handers, who used to bother him back when his game was played on a less ethereal plane.
Although the second-ranked Ivanisevic out-aced him 25-17, Sampras was twice as effective at net, nearly three times as accurate from the baseline and allowed the baffled Croat only two break points. He squelched them both with big serves.
"I never had a chance," said Ivanisevic, 22. "He was always serving unbelievable, he played unbelievable, and today he hit some great returns, so I have to hit a great volley or I'm in big trouble."
Ivanisevic's only other appearance in a Grand Slam final came at Wimbledon in a five-set loss against Andre Agassi in 1992. "When you lose to a guy like Pete it hurts less than it did two years ago," he said, "because two years ago I knew I had a good chance. But today, he was just too good."
Sampras has collected four of the past five Grand Slam crowns, and his eight tournament victories in '94 matches his total from last year as he has taken his No. 1 ranking to a height unlikely to be scaled by any challenger for the duration of the year.
He said he couldn't worry about the staccato pace of the match, in which just three rallies contained more than five shots.
"It's a grass court, and you have two big serve-and-volley players like Goran and myself, so you're not going to see long rallies; that's the bottom line," he said. "But when it comes down to a tiebreaker like it did today, that's exciting. I knew the match was going to come down to a couple of points, and I got them."
Sampras so nearly approached flawlessness in the 65-minute final, which began as a serving race but concluded in a rout, he felt compelled to apologize to Ivanisevic after it was all over.
"He just said `Sorry' - wasn't that nice from him - and he said, `I couldn't play any better,' " Ivanisevic said.
Keywords:
TENNIS
by CNB