May 6, 2007
Sampras beats Martin to win Champions Cup
BOSTON (TICKER) --- On the verge of being upset, Pete Sampras rallied to defeat Todd Martin, 6-3, 5-7, 11-9 in Sunday's championship match of Champions Cup Boston to complete his comeback to competitive tennis.
Making his return to the courts, the 35-year-old Sampras --- a 14-time Grand Slam champion --- struggled after cruising in the first set.
Sampras lost his first set of the tournament and trailed, 9-6, in the first-to-10 tiebreaker before rallying. He closed the match on his serve when Martin hit a return shot long.
"I thought it was very high-level," Sampras said. "I thought the tennis was the best of the whole week, at least for me anyway. Todd can still play, and the crowd enjoyed it. I really had fun competing again, not nearly the intensity it used to be but its still competitive and you still want to win."
The pairing was a rematch of the 1994 Australian Open final, where Sampras defeated Martin 7-6, 6-4, 6-4. This time around, Sampras had more trouble defeating the former sixth-ranked player in the world, as the 6-6 Martin often controlled points with his powerful serve.
"He was a little bit off in the first set; I was serving well, dictating play," Sampras said. "I was really on my game. He picked up his level a ton; he really was tough to break. I was having a hard time picking (his serve) up; I've always had a hard time trying to break his serve."
"He's really smart, he knows his limitations, and the hardest thing about Todd is that it's hard to get control of the point."
After the match, Sampras announced to the crowd that the New York Yankees had signed Roger Clemens, which was greeted by a chorus of boos.
"I was just having fun," Sampras said. "You know what? It's not that funny in this town. It's like a religion. I've never seen anything like it."
In the third-place match earlier Sunday, John McEnroe won the matchup of Hall of Famers with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Jim Courier.
May 6, 2007
Sampras champion among Champions
By JIMMY GOLEN, AP Sports Writer
BOSTON (AP) --- For Pete Sampras, it was a day to live dangerously.
First, the future Hall of Famer faced a triple match point against Todd Martin in the final of the Champion's Cup event at Boston University on Sunday. Then, between beating Martin and grabbing the first-prize check of $50,000, Sampras shared some bad news with the Red Sox fans in the crowd.
"I don't know if you guys heard, but I believe the New York Yankees just signed Roger Clemens," Sampras said during the trophy ceremony as the crowd of 3,560 erupted in boos. "I'm serious."
On the day that the 35-year-old Sampras made a successful return on the seniors tour, another old-timer announced that he would be making a comeback that was much less welcome in Boston. Clemens, 44, said during the seventh-inning stretch at Yankee Stadium that he chose New York over the Red Sox for his latest comeback.
The fans at Agganis Arena probably missed the news while watching Sampras play Martin. So Sampras, a Dodgers fan, took the opportunity to tweak them.
"I'm just having fun," Sampras said after the match. "You know what, it's not that fun in this town. It's like a religion. I've never seen anything like it. They're passionate (in Los Angeles), but I've never seen anything like it is here."
Sampras hadn't played competitive tennis since winning the 2002 U.S. Open for his record 14th Grand Slam title. Retired at 31, he didn't pick up a racket or watch tennis on television for almost three years before deciding to play a limited schedule of exhibitions and Champion's Cup events.
His presence was a coup for the seniors tour and reminder for his opponents --- Petr Korda, Tim Mayotte, John McEnroe and Martin --- of why he dominated the regular tour when they were in their prime.
"Adding Sampras has certainly added some extra buzz," said Jim Courier, a competitor and organizer of the tour. "There's no question that when you bring in 14 major titles in one body, it's going to get tougher."
In a nod to the players knees, the matches are best-of-two sets, with a 10-point tiebreaker in case they split the sets. Sampras won the first set 6-3 and it was 5-5 in the second when Martin broke Sampras' serve, then held serve to tie it.
"I was thoroughly unprepared for a lot of what he had to offer," said Martin, the winner of last year's Boston event. "The only recourse I had was to turn it into a tennis match rather than a skills test, because his skills are better than mine."
Trailing 9-6, Sampras won five consecutive points. Martin was serving for the victory at 9-8 when he hit a backhand --- a "pretty easy" one, Sampras said --- into the net; Sampras took the victory at 11-9 when Martin returned a serve wide.
"Athletically, he's still closer to the speed he was when he was competing. The rest of us have depreciated more," Martin said. "I hit a few shots today, but I was reacting 9 times out of 10, if not 19 times out of 20."
Sampras had been doing his best to stay in shape playing 3-on-3 basketball twice a week in Los Angeles with friends, including former tour player Alex O'Brien. Beach volleyball and golf have also kept him busy when he wasn't chasing his two kids, 1 1/2 and 4 1/2 , around the house.
But now that he's back on the court, he plans to make a few appearances -- not the entire seven-event tour --- including Athens in two weeks. "I'm excited about taking my folks there, being a Greek-American," Sampras said.
Sampras went 3-0 in the round-robin before beating Martin in the final. McEnroe beat Courier 6-2, 6-3 in the consolation match.
Even so, the others were glad to have Sampras around.
"I think it adds a tremendous amount of legitimacy to what we're doing out here to have somebody who still plays at that level," Martin said. "For me, it's great to know that the best player in our era still wants to compete, still wants to beat me."