Gritty Sampras Avoids Another Grand Slam Disaster Top Seed Goes Five Sets In Outlasting 47th-Ranked Czech, Jiri Novak
In one full-throated bellow, Pete Sampras let loose all the exasperation he kept bottled up through five sets of a tight, tired and distinctly ugly flirtation with danger.
Sampras’ year of misery very nearly ended in ruin Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open against an undistinguished young Czech, 47th-ranked Jiri Novak, who made the defending champion and top seed look so vulnerable.
Sampras, who sprayed 66 unforced errors, survived this match less on power or guile than on gritty determination, a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory that was a testament to his sheer refusal to lose.
“It was the fifth set of the U.S. Open. This is it. Either you go home tomorrow, or you stick around. I decided to stick around,” Sampras said. “I never felt I would lose.”
Stefan Edberg decided he would stick around, too, after dropping the first set at night and looking disgusted with himself early in the second match of his 54th consecutive and final Grand Slam. Edberg turned the match around in the second set after getting broken twice and wound up winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 1-0 when Bernd Karbacher retired with a left hamstring injury.
“I really had big problems in the beginning finding my timing and seeing the ball,” Edberg said. “I had not played at night in over three weeks.”
Despite 18 aces, three more than the 21-year-old Novak, Sampras also needed a little luck, a couple of gifts and one acrobatic leap at the end to win.
“I was missing, pressing a little, going for too much. It was one of those matches when I didn’t play great,” said Sampras, who is trying to salvage a disastrous year with at least one Grand Slam title. He lost in the third round at the Australian, then the semifinals of the French shortly after his coach and friend, Tim Gullikson, died. Sampras’ bid for a fourth consecutive Wimbledon title ended in the quarterfinals.
Mark Philippoussis of Australia, fourth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia and No. 12 Todd Martin served up a spate of aces in powering their way into the third round.
Monica Seles, the women’s No. 2 seed, did all her slugging from the baseline, beating Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar 6-0, 6-2, in a match that truly was closer than the lopsided score.
Lindsay Davenport, one of the biggest hitters on the women’s tour, overpowered Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France 6-0, 6-3 to move into the fourth round. The match took just 54 minutes.
The eighth-seeded Davenport was joined in the fourth round by No. 4 Conchita Martinez of Spain, Amanda Coetzer of South Africa and Sandrine Testud of France.
Martinez defeated Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3; Coetzer stopped Romania’s Irina Spirlea 7-6 (7-5), 7-5; and Testud downed Argentina’s Ines Gorrochategui 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Asa Carlsson of Sweden eliminated No. 15 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
Ivanisevic served 16 aces past Australian Scott Draper in advancing with a 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win. Martin served 10 aces in a quick, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Andrea Gaudenzi. Philippoussis pounded out 24 aces in his 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Andrei Olhovskiy, and had many more service winners.