September 27, 2009
Sampras serves Courier a win
By Rick Bonnell
Usually powerful stroke fails on match point at Breezeplay
senior tournament at Palisades.
The greatest serve-and-volleyer in the history of men's tennis couldn't get in a second serve on match point Sunday.
"Yeah, he always does that,'' Jim Courier joked after Pete Sampras double-faulted away the championship match of the Breezeplay senior tournament at the Palisades. Courier won a super-tiebreaker 10-8 after losing the first set 6-3 and winning the second 6-4.
Understand how unlikely this was: Courier calls Sampras' serve the greatest stroke he ever faced. That serve was the centerpiece of a style that won Sampras a then-record 14 Grand Slam singles titles.
But his serve cracked Sunday --- he hit that second serve about 6 inches beyond the line --- to lose just his second senior match ever. John McEnroe is the only other player to have beaten Sampras on the Outback Champions Series.
Sampras said he couldn't remember the last time he lost a match with a double-fault. He blamed it partially on the late-afternoon sun being in his eyes and partially on the pressure he was feeling from Courier's service returns late in the match.
Sampras had no such trouble in the first set. Courier couldn't win two points on any of Sampras' first three service games and Sampras had six break points against Courier's serve to race through the first set.
Then the match flipped in the first game of the second set, when Courier broke Sampras at 15-40. Courier grew more aggressive in his service returns and Sampras wouldn't play it safe. By Courier's estimation, Sampras was firing second serves 110 mph or faster in the super-tiebreaker.
"Typically, he's good enough to do that,'' Courier said.
Typical, this surely wasn't.
Notes: Courier, who helps run the senior tour, said this tournament might be moved into October next year, in hopes of avoiding the rain that disrupted it this year and last...After losing to Courier in a Sunday-morning semi (6-2, 7-5) Todd Martin won the third-place match over Pat Cash, also 6-2, 7-5.
September 27, 2009
Courier defeats Sampras To win Breezeplay
CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- Jim Courier defeated Pete Sampras 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 (Champions Tie-breaker) Sunday to win the singles title at the $150,000 Breezeplay Championships at The Palisades at The Palisades Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. The victory was Courier's first over Sampras since the first round of the 1997 Italian Open in Rome and his first on a hard court over the 14-time major singles champion since the quarterfinals of the 1991 US Open.
Courier earned $60,000 by winning the title in Charlotte, his ninth career title on the Outback Champions Series, the global tennis circuit for champion tennis players age 30 and over. Courier also earned 800 ranking points to extend his lead as the No. 1 player on the Outback Champions Series.
After splitting the first two sets, the two Hall of Famers played the customary first-to-10 point "Champions" tie-breaker, played in lieu of a third set. Courier clinched victory when Sampras double-faulted at 8-9 in the tie-breaker.
"That last double fault was hard on match point," said Sampras. "I was serving right into the sun on that one and it hurt a little bit."
Said Courier, "I wasn't expecting that match point to end on a double fault. He was going for 110 mph second serves and sometimes he's good enough to get away with that serve."
During their ATP careers, Sampras and Courier played a total of 20 times, Sampras winning on 16 occasions, including the Wimbledon final in 1993. Sampras won their only previous meeting on the Outback Champions Series, a 6-2, 6-4 win in round-robin play during the 2007 event in Athens, Greece.
"I think he was having a hard time picking up my serve at the beginning," said Sampras, who earned $30,000 for the runner-up showing. "Eventually he got there and started predicting it. Jim's a guy who's always going to compete and I knew that once we started the second set. I knew he was going to compete for that second set. I had a few chances in that tiebreaker and just couldn't get it. It was disappointing."
Due to weekend rains in Charlotte, Courier was forced to play his semifinal match against Todd Martin at 10 am on Sunday, postponed from Saturday evening. Following his 7-5, 6-2 semifinal win over Martin, Courier was able rest until the final with Sampras started at 4 pm, following Martin's 7-5, 6-2 win over Pat Cash in the event's third-place match.
"I was pretty relieved when his match point serve went out," said Courier of the final point of the singles final. "I felt flat in the first set. I thought I'd be loose, but my legs felt tight and lethargic. I definitely got more boost in my legs and my serve really started to click. If my serve clicks I can hang in the match."
The loss marked only the second time that Sampras has been defeated on the Outback Champions Series since joining the circuit in 2007. In 2008, he lost to John McEnroe 2-6, 7-5 10-4 (Champions Tie-breaker) in round-robin play in Boston.