Game Stalled For Sampras At Davis Cup

What’s the matter with Pete Sampras?

Halfway through the year, Sampras is nowhere near the player who ruled men’s tennis with an aura of invincibility for much of 1994.

A week before the French Open, the only Grand Slam he has never won, Sampras’ game and confidence are in disarray.

Twelve months ago in Rome, he played the best clay-court tennis of his career to win the Italian Open for his seventh title of the year. After being wiped out in the final, Boris Becker said Sampras was “flying - he was the best of the best.”

Times have changed.

Sampras lost his world No. 1 ranking last month to Andre Agassi and came to Rome this week with just one tournament victory this year (Indian Wells). He left without even winning a match.

He was whistled and jeered off the court Tuesday after being humiliated 6-4, 6-3 by French journeyman Fabrice Santoro, the first time a top seed and defending champ has lost in the first round in Rome.

It wasn’t a case of Santoro playing spectacular tennis. This was Sampras at his worst: making unforced errors (42), hitting tentatively from the baseline, letting his opponent dictate the play. Worst of all, Sampras seemed to lose heart and make little effort to fight back.

Sampras wrote off the loss as a “bad day at the office.”

“I dug myself into a hole and couldn’t get out of it,” he said. “On clay, it’s harder for me to get out of it than on other surfaces.”

It was the third time this spring that Sampras has failed to get past the first round of a clay-court event. He lost in the first round to little-known Oliver Gross in Barcelona and was forced to retire with a sprained ankle during his opening match in Monte Carlo.

Sampras played well in reaching the semifinals of the German Open, but his apparent progress was negated by his poor play in Rome.

Sampras flew straight home to the U.S. to get ready for the French, which starts May 29. He passed up a chance to take a wild card for next week’s clay-court event in Bologna to keep an appointment to play in a lucrative exhibition in Rouen, France, May 26-27.

Sampras, who has made the quarterfinals of the French the past three years, has said repeatedly that his No. 1 career goal is to win in Paris and become the first man since Rod Laver to capture all four Grand Slam titles.

While he went in as the favorite for the French last year, Sampras allowed after his Rome defeat that his expectations are modest.

“This year I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I just hope I can win through the first week and go from there. I’ll just give it my best shot.”

Sampras’ fellow players have noticed the change.

“For me, he’s not the favorite at the French Open,” Goran Ivanisevic said. “The way he wants to play on clay is impossible. He tries for too many winners. You need to be patient.”

Fellow American MaliVai Washington said it was inevitable that Sampras would be unable to keep up his level of play from last year.

“The tennis he played last year, especially the first six months, was phenomenal,” he said. “From January to June, he probably played six months of the best tennis ever. It’s tough to keep up that pace.”

Austria’s Thomas Muster, this year’s dominant clay-court player, said Sampras is making it tough for himself by shuttling back and forth between the U.S. and Europe.

“It’s a difficult thing to play on clay in Europe,” Muster said. “It’s something you have to prepare for. That was the problem for Pete. He never really got a good rhythm.”

Sampras apparently regrets his decision to join Agassi for the U.S. Davis Cup victory over Italy in Palermo this spring. He and Agassi considered the trip a disruption in their schedules.

In a telling comment, Sampras went up to U.S. tennis commentator Bud Collins after the Rome loss and said with a smile, “It’s all your fault Bud. You made me play Davis Cup.”

“That’s the price of patriotism,” replied Collins, who has long campaigned for the top U.S. stars to play Davis Cup.

Sampras also still seems emotionally affected by the absence of his coach, Tim Gullickson, who is being treated for a brain tumor.

In Rome, Sampras was also missing another key member of his support group, girlfriend Delaina Mulchay, who is attending Stetson law school in Deland, Fla.

Perhaps the T-shirt that he wore to his post-match news conference best summed up his state of mind these days:

“This IS Work.”

Maybe the fun has gone out of the game for Sampras.