IT IS generally assumed that either Boris Becker or Pete Sampras will win the ATP World championship tomorrow, for they have both taken this spuriously named title twice in the last five years. Yet if anyone is to wrench apart the German American axis it just might be a man who in recent times has been playing with hair raising effects.
Goran Ivanisevic having decided to grow his hair long again, has solved the problem of it falling into his eyes by gathering up a clump in a sort of plume which lifts vertically from his forehead. It is not a fashion that is likely to catch on in Europe's nightclubs. But given that the idiosyncratic Croat has more bats in his belfry than most on the Tour, this style seems a perfect summation of all his tennis eccentricities.
Sampras, who plays him in today's semi finals, knows well enough that every match against Ivanesevic is, as he described it yesterday, a "roller coaster. It's a kind of craps shoot. Anything can happen."
Doing with Ivanesevic is not merely a matter of tennis. It is just as much a question of the man's mood. He is much more than a stupendous server, but time and again, when he seems poised to win with ease, he self destructs.
Between 1990 and 1993 Ivanisevic held a 5-2 lead over the emerging Sampras, but in their last eight meetings the 6'4" Croat has won only once. And perhaps the most telling defeat, certainly in terms of the way Ivanesevic's mind works (or rather, in tactical terms, doesn't) occurred in the semi finals of this year's US Open.
Sampras, having so narrowly survived against Spain's Alex Corretja in a punishing five set quarter-final, was clearly still suffering, yet Ivanisevic, instead of trying to wear the American down by keeping the ball in play, went for a constant stream of winners and lost miserably.
Yesterday Sampras had to beat Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in his final round robin match to reach the semi final and duly did 6-4, 6-4. After Thursday's marvellous match against Becker, which Sampras lost on two tie breaks, he was patently determined to polish off the Russian quickly. "I would have preferred a day of," said Sampras.
Kafelnikov had his chances yesterday and hit some wonderful winners, but the world's number one always had the edge on this slick carpet court. "Every time I play these top guys we have a close match but on the crucial points I always seem to be the loser," said Kafelnikov.
The Russian lacks the big serve of Sampras and Becker and is also inclined to go for outright winners rather than play percentage. But he is only 22, already ranked number three in the world, and with more experience will come greater confidence. The French Open will not be his last Grand Slam title.
. Steffi Graf needed to save six set points in her quarter final of the year ending Chase Championships against Lindsay Davenport in New York but still found herself upstaged by a Croat.
In a day which saw more drama than in the average play, the unseeded Iva Majoli pulled off a courageous 7-6 7-6 victory over the number four seed Conchita Martinez, to guarantee an unfancied name in tomorrow's best of five sets final.