May 2, 2008
Florida's Arias Stretches Sampras Before Retiring;
Sampras v McEnroe Friday at Boston
Sarasota resident Jimmy Arias led Pete Sampras 5-4 in the opening set when he was forced to retire with a hamstring injury at the senior tennis event in Boston.
"One lunge to the backhand side and I took a little bigger step than my 43-1/2 year old legs would go and I hurt my hamstring," Arias said. "I was playing well and Pete was a little rusty. He was missing a lot of first serves so I had a lot of looks at his second serve. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened."
Sampras took some time to warm up in his debut match at the Outback Champions Tour stop.
"I got off to a slow start," Sampras said. "I felt a little better with my timing and rhythm as we went on. Jimmy was hitting some great passing shots and shots on the run. He was playing really well. He still moves great."
Arias said he hopes to be fit for his match Friday night against Courier.
John McEnroe recorded the upset of the tournament Thursday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over fellow American Jim Courier, the No. 1 player in the Stanford Champions Rankings.
"I'm pleasantly surprised with the win," said McEnroe, who has said this will be his last year on the senior tour. "I went in thinking I had a chance if I played well. We've played a couple of close matches in the past and this surface is better for me."
On Friday's schedule is Wayne Ferreira vs. Aaron Krickstein, MaliVai Washington vs. Mikael Pernfors, Courier vs. Arias, and McEnroe vs. Sampras.
May 3, 2008
McEnroe finally beats Sampras
By Barbara Matson
The audience at Agganis Arena got what it expected in the first set of the feature match of the Champions Cup last night: Pete Sampras blew through John McEnroe quickly, his powerful serve-and-volley game putting most points out of McEnroe's reach.
But the match began to veer off track, steered by the 49-year-old McEnroe's skills. Though he was overwhelmed in the first set, McEnroe hung around. He served and swerved and hit balls that curved to hammer out a win in the second set, then reared back and pounded the ball in the tiebreaker, serving five aces for a 2-6, 7-5, 10-4 victory.
"That's what you gotta love about sports," said McEnroe, looking dazed. "Anything can happen."
It was McEnroe's first victory over Sampras (they met three times on the ATP Tour, and have played several times in senior play and exhibitions), and the first loss in the Champions Cup for Sampras, who is playing his fourth tournament on the over-30 tour.
"The first game, the pace of the ball was so phenomenal, I felt like I tweaked every muscle in my body," McEnroe said. "Not only is it a lot of pace, it's difficult to tell where it's going. So to react to that, can be dangerous, physically."
McEnroe wasn't kidding. After winning a tough match against Jim Courier Thursday, he was a bit sore, a bit tired, a bit depleted. "I had a little bit of tightness from [beating] Courier," said McEnroe, who got an on-court treatment from the Tour's trainer after the third game of the second set.
Sampras seemed to have a good grip on the match even as McEnroe tried to work the ball out to the lines and stretch Sampras. But trailing, 4-5, in the set, McEnroe served a love game: rescuing a cross-court shot to hit a forehand volley down the line, and forcing Sampras into two returns that sailed long. McEnroe broke Sampras in the next game, a double fault at game point underscoring Sampras's weakening power, and McEnroe's ability hit the lines.
Sampras received on-court treatment, too, before the tiebreaker, for a sore back that he said he tweaked a few weeks ago playing basketball. But he couldn't work out the kinks in his game.
In the tiebreaker, McEnroe fired five aces (Sampras had one), including two in a row for a 5-2 lead. Sampras rallied with a cross-court winner and a service winner to bring it to 5-4, but then McEnroe fired another ace. He looked as stunned as anyone. McEnroe closed the improbable match with a big serve, which Sampras drove long, giving McEnroe the tiebreak at 10-4, and the match.
"Who would have thought I'd have five aces in the tiebreak, and he'd have one?" said McEnroe. "Now I can tell my kids I beat Pete Sampras once."
May 3, 2008
Sampras Withdraws From 2008 Champions Cup Boston With Back Injury
Boston --- InsideOut Sports and Entertainment today announced that Pete Sampras has been forced to withdraw from the remainder of Champions Cup Boston competition due to a back injury sustained in his loss to John McEnroe on Friday night.
"Competitive injuries happen and are out of our control but there will still be two excellent matches for tonight's spectators to enjoy." said Jon Venison, Co-Founder of InsideOut Sports and Entertainment and the Outback Champions Series. "We're pleased to be able to offer fans a special doubles match between four of our tour players as a replacement for the Sampras-Courier match. We understand there may be some fans that will be disappointed that Pete and Jim will not be playing singles tonight as scheduled and therefore we are also offering a special opportunity for tonight's audience to receive an additional free ticket to the Session One matches in next year's tournament." Further information regarding this special ticket offer will be available at ChampionsSeriesTennis.com.
Sampras was scheduled to compete against Courier to determine who would advance to Sunday's third-place match from Group A. Mikael Pernfors will face Aaron Krickstein in tonight's first match. The second match will be replaced with a special doubles competition featuring Courier, Mal Washington, Wayne Ferreira and Justin Gimelstob. The day session kicked off when Ferreira defeated Washington 6-3, 3-6, 11-9 (TB) while McEnroe played former ATP star Justin Gimelstob in an exhibition match.
"I am sorry I won't be able to play in my match tonight against Jim due to a lower back injury," said Sampras. "I initially felt a twinge of pain in my opening match versus Jimmy Arias and it worsened near the end of my match against Mac last night. I will be going for an MRI today to properly diagnose the injury and will begin rehabilitating as soon as possible to ensure that I will be ready to play again in the near future. I look forward to coming back to Boston again next year to try to win the title."