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Tennis: Rusedski suffers as Sampras makes all the right moves

John Roberts
Thursday 13 November 1997 00:02 GMT
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Greg Rusedski's adventure as Britain's first representative among the world's elite at the ATP Tour Championship began to fade after yesterday's round-robin defeat by Pete Sampras. John Roberts, in Hannover, explains why it was no time for the British No 1 to wake up with a twinge in his thigh.

Shortly before serving for the opening set against Greg Rusedski yesterday, Pete Sampras lay flat on his courtside bench, awaiting medical attention. The problem was not match-threatening, merely a nosebleed, the consequence, perhaps, of being so high for so long.

Rusedski, a newcomer to the altitudes of the sport, was the player with real difficulties, both physical and psychological. A taut hamstring in the right thigh restricted Rusedski's movement, and his upward mobility was limited further by a vast improvement in Sampras's performance on the second day of the ATP Tour Championship.

The brilliant American had defeated the Canadian-born Rusedski in their five previous matches, starting with Rusedski's Wimbledon debut and continued the sequence, 6-4, 7-5, after 76 minutes.

Unfortunately for Rusedski, while he was experiencing twinges of pain, his opponent was refreshed, having worked the staleness out of his game during his defeat on Tuesday by Spain's Carlos Moya. "It was a wake up call," Sampras said.

"I was kind of in a do-or-die situation today. Either I was going to be making flight plans over the weekend, or I was not.''

Rusedski is the one likely to have the airport on his mind. Having lost his opening matches against Sampras and Australia's Pat Rafter, the British No 1 is scheduled to complete his three round-robin matches in the Red Group against Moya tonight. Rusedski had requested a day off for further treatment, but the show goes on.

Eight double-faults compounded Rusedski's misery yesterday. "I just couldn't push up, that was the problem," he said, indicating his right foot. "Trying to play against Sampras when you are not 100 per cent fit is not the easiest of tasks. I couldn't go for certain balls. I was probably about a step or a step and a half late on certain balls that I normally would get to.''

As far as Sampras was concerned, Rusedski seemed to be serving "pretty hard" and moving "fine". "I couldn't sense any hobbling out there," he said. Then again, the American was probably too busy sharpening up his own game, having admitted that he "felt a little flat" in the match against Moya.

Having complained about the slowness of the concrete court and the heaviness of the balls after losing to Moya, Sampras found that the same conditions worked to his advantage when faced with Rusedski's attacking game. The Briton, in fact, was forced to defend most of the time.

His first double-fault created a break point for Sampras in the opening game, the error being erased with a service winner. Sampras did not lose a point on his first two service games and then broke for 3-2, confidently passing Rusedski with a forehand.

In the following game, when Rusedski did make some headway on Sampras's serve, the American swept away a break point with an angled backhand volley. Rusedski subsequently saved three break points in a seventh game notable for three double-faults and two aces.

Sampras's progress was interrupted for three minutes by a time-out for the treatment to his nose. "I happen to get a number of bloody noses through the year," he said. "It was a bad one. Wouldn't stop for a while. But once its gone, it's gone.''

The trainer remained for the opening game of the second set, sitting on Sampras's chair like a stray Davis Cup captain, but Rusedski was the player who seemed in greater need of treatment, for frustration as much as physical stress.

He threw his racket to the court after missing a shot down the line that would have given him a break point in the fourth game. Rusedski had a better opportunity to create a break point at 30-30 in the eighth game, but dumped a backhand approach into the net.

His eighth double-fault set Sampras up for the kill in the 11th game, the American converting the opportunity with a forehand cross-court pass off a second serve.

Rusedski's coach, Tony Pickard, was far from disheartened with his new protege's performance. "It's the first time he's made it here, and he lost to No 1 and No 3 in the world, not 153 or something," he said. "I would say he was only 75 per cent fit today. You can't help what happened. That's it in a nutshell.''

TODAY'S MATCHES: M Chang v Y Kafelnikov; J Bjorkman v S Bruguera; C Moya v G Rusedski.

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