Sampras Wins Grand Slam Cup

Tennis

Pete Sampras gave Patrick Rafter a tennis lesson Sunday, hammering the U.S. Open champion in straight sets to win the Grand Slam Cup and the sport’s richest prize $1.5 million for the title.

Sampras won his first 20 service points against the Australian, ranked third in the world, then rolled to a 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 win at the $6 million tournament in Munich, Germany.

Sampras, ranked No. 1, took the second set when he broke the Australian’s serve at 4-4 with a passing shot so hard it almost knocked the racket out of the diving Rafter’s hand.

“Because he just won the U.S. Open, it raised my intensity,” Sampras said. “He’s No. 3 now, so you come out firing.”

At Leipzig, Germany, Jana Novotna, the world’s second-ranked player, beat South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer in three hard-fought sets to claim the Leipzig Open title for the second time since 1994.

Novotna beat Coetzer, who’d knocked out top-ranked Martina Hingis in the semifinals of the $450,000 tournament, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in just under two hours for her 17th career title.

At Bucharest, Romania, Australian Richard Fromberg overpowered Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) to win the $475,000 Romanian men’s clay court tennis tournament.

At Johannesburg, South Africa, third-seeded John McEnroe beat top seed Johan Kriek 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 to capture the Champions tennis title at Sandton Gardens.

At Toulouse, France, Nicolas Kiefer became the first German man to win a tennis tournament this season, upsetting defending champion Mark Philippoussis 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in the final of the Toulouse Open.