Sampras Serves Courier A Win
Charlotte Observer | September 27, 2009
Sampras Serves Courier A Win
By Rick Bonnell
The greatest serve-and-volleyer in the history of men's tennis couldn't get in a second serve on match point Sunday.
"Yeah, he always does that,'' Jim Courier joked after Pete Sampras double-faulted away the championship match of the Breezeplay senior tournament at the Palisades. Courier won a super-tiebreaker 10-8 after losing the first set 6-3 and winning the second 6-4.
Understand how unlikely this was: Courier calls Sampras' serve the greatest stroke he ever faced. That serve was the centerpiece of a style that won Sampras a then-record 14 Grand Slam singles titles.
But his serve cracked Sunday - he hit that second serve about 6 inches beyond the line - to lose just his second senior match ever. John McEnroe is the only other player to have beaten Sampras on the Outback Champions Series.
Sampras said he couldn't remember the last time he lost a match with a double-fault. He blamed it partially on the late-afternoon sun being in his eyes and partially on the pressure he was feeling from Courier's service returns late in the match.
Sampras had no such trouble in the first set. Courier couldn't win two points on any of Sampras' first three service games and Sampras had six break points against Courier's serve to race through the first set.
Then the match flipped in the first game of the second set, when Courier broke Sampras at 15-40. Courier grew more aggressive in his service returns and Sampras wouldn't play it safe. By Courier's estimation, Sampras was firing second serves 110 mph or faster in the super-tiebreaker.
"Typically, he's good enough to do that,'' Courier said.
Typical, this surely wasn't.
Notes: Courier, who helps run the senior tour, said this tournament might be moved into October next year, in hopes of avoiding the rain that disrupted it this year and last...After losing to Courier in a Sunday-morning semi (6-2, 7-5) Todd Martin won the third-place match over Pat Cash, also 6-2, 7-5.