Sampras shakes American order
Pete Sampras may be one and a half steps slower but he continued to soft-shoe shuffle his way through the draw at the US Open here at Flushing Meadows, reaching today's semi-final against Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands with a perfunctory 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory over his fellow American Andy Roddick. For 1 hours of purgatory under the Arthur Ashe stadium floodlights on Thursday night the younger man discovered that his supposedly dazzling future was all behind him.
At least Roddick was prepared to laugh at himself. "If I win a match my game's improving and it's so solid and it's great and it's grand and wonderful. Then, if I lose a match, it's terrible and it sucks and I'm useless. Take your pick." The fact is that the 20-year-old Roddick has a lot to learn and he knows it. He also knows that the weight of expectation on his broad shoulders is colossal and, in all likelihood, overblown.
"I'll have my moment here some day," he said after what proved to be a thoroughly chastening evening. This was not the sort of slightly diffident phrase one would have expected to slip from the mouth of either Sampras or Andre Agassi a decade ago. But Roddick has never claimed he has the game to compare with those two multi-champions and here was a small indication that his own expectations may be a good deal more limited.
Sampras, who entered the tournament with a 20-17 record this year and a confidence bypass, has cast off his ugly duckling outfit and is now swanning it. For the moment at least the past really is a foreign country, although it should not be forgotten that he reached the final here both last year and the year before, only to be easily beaten by Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin respectively.
This is the most demanding finale of all the four grand slam championships, with the semi-final and final back to back, although Sampras will take much encouragement that he finished off Roddick so quickly and without breaking sweat. If Sampras beats Schalken, who reached the last four for the first time in a grand slam event with a wearying five-set victory over Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, he will hope that Agassi and Hewitt are involved in a long and drawn-out semi-final.
It was ironic that Roddick, more than 10 years Sampras's junior, should blame this defeat on his poor footwork, given Greg Rusedski's comments on how much Sampras had slowed up.
The foot injury that Roddick aggravated in his previous match against Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela did not appear to hinder him but on numerous occasions he was caught static on the baseline. Consequently many of his attempted passing shots, particularly on the backhand, were poorly executed and either ended deep in the net or were easily picked off by Sampras's crisp volleys.
The gliding and glistening, snowy white Sampras was everything he had not been at Wimbledon this year or anywhere else. Roddick appeared intimidated before the first warm-up ball was hit, steadfastly refusing to catch Sampras's eye in the tunnel as the interminable pre-match build- up ran its cacophonous course. Sampras had warmed up by running around the corridors underneath the stadium and was still doing stretching exercises as they waited; Rod dick, hands on hips, stared into the far distance as if mesmerised.
Sampras has never lost a night match at Flushing Meadows in a total that has now reached 20. "I feed off the energy. I got off to a great start and that set the tone. Andy seemed a bit low, not quite as emotional as he usually is," said Sampras, who was asked if he had any message for Rusedski. "I've got more important things to talk about than Greg," he replied curtly.
There is no doubt that the re-tying of the knot with his former coach Paul Annacone after Wimbledon has done much to rebuild Sampras's fragmented confidence. "He knew what I was going through. It's not so much physical; it's been my state of mind - not getting down on myself. He knows my game and what I should be doing out there."
Sampras's second-round defeat by Switzerland's George Bastl at Wimbledon this year was a seminal moment. "It was the ultimate low point of my career, a shocker. Now everything's clicking again but it's been a long wait."