THE head began to roll, and fatigue pressed a hard and heavy hand on his shoulders, but the tennis world has come to recognise this year that Pete Sampras is not only the number one player in the world but one of sport's great fighters.

So it was yesterday afternoon in Hanover that after four hours of unremittingly severe tennis, with little in the way of gifts and remarkably few unforced errors, at least until the third and dramatic tie break, the American defeated Germany's Boris Becker 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in the ATP finals, a victory that even this hugely partisan crowd of more than 15,000 finally acknowledged with long and generous applause.

The level of support for Becker rarely stilled, reaching a shrieking climax when he won that third tie break 13-11. Becker had fought off two match points with both players struggling to hold their game together as nerves chugged their shots. Becker had, extraordinarily, begun this final with four successive aces; he then broke Sampras in the fourth game in the first set and served out.

Sampras, who had also lost to Becker in the ATP Stuttgart tournament last month, had been only a little off the pace initially, but it was just enough to give Becker, also one of the game's great fighters, an early grip and one it seemed Sampras would have the devil's own job to shake free.

It was their 17th meeting, Sampras previously holding a 9-7 advantage and never having lost to the German on three successive occasions. That statistic was to stand, although Sampras himself was tottering when, after a 24 stroke rally, Becker finally put a backhand into the net to lose set and match.

Before that final set it had seemed that Becker, four years older than the 25 year old Sampras, would be the one to pull the fat out of the flames. The American, normally undemonstrative on court, had let out a wail of delight when he won the first tie break and the adrenalin was still flowing when he nicked the second. But in a mighty fourth 591 Becker continually slammed the door in Sampras's face whenever it seemed he would pocket the 51,340,000 winning cheque.

But it was Sampras who eked out that little bit extra: finally driving a fissure through Becker's rock hard serve.