FOR the seventh time in his last 23 Grand Slam matches, dating back to last year's French Open, the world's number one player, Pete Sampras, found himself taken to five sets yesterday.
It says much for his tenaciousness and resolve that he has won all of these marathon matches, including this Australian Open quarter final against Spain's Albert Costa. Nevertheless, Austria's Thomas Muster, who earlier in the day had a remarkably easy, straight sets win over Goran Ivanisevic, will have relished every ounce of energy that Sampras expended. The two meet tomorrow for a place in Sunday's final.
Ivanisevic, having narrowly survived a five setter of his own in the fourth round against Norway's Christian Ruud, was a rag bag of mistakes against Muster. He believes the Austrian, ranked number five, and the French Open winner in 1995, has the game to beat Sampras on this relatively slow centre court. "And if he beats Pete, he is going to win the tournament pretty easily."
Sampras holds a 6-1 head to head lead over Muster, including a five set victory in the first round of the 1991 championships at Roland Garros when the American, not a renowned clay court player (unlike Muster), came back from two sets down.
Muster's win over Sampras came in a semi final on carpet in Essen two years ago, a real rarity, for of the Austrian's 42 singles title all but two have been on clay. But he tends to bridle when anyone suggest he cannot play on hard courts.
He was asked yesterday if people might stop referring to him merely as a clay court specialist if he were to take the Australian Open title. I don't care. If they don't realise I can play on hard courts then they are blind anyway. It was a typical Muster rejoinder.
In fact, Muster reached the semifinal here in 1989, but later in that same year he was hit by a drunk driver in Miami, severing the ligaments in his left knee. It would have finished the career of many players, but Muster now 29, was playing inside six months and the next year won his only hard court title in Adelaide.
There is no doubting his ability on all surfaces, save perhaps grass, but the hard courts put an immense strain on his leg and he generally chooses to limit his tournaments on them, preferring the more forgiving clay where he can skid and slide to his iron heart's content.
Sampras, on the back of two five setters, will hardly relish the meeting. "I don't know if Thomas is normal" said Ivanisevic. "I am sitting at the change over and he is already waiting for me to serve. I said `Jesus, what is going on here'. But that's him you know, that's how he plays it. He is tough mentally and physically."
Too tough for the Croatian who once again found his Grand Slam dreams in fragments. Muster is now like Chang, using a long handled racket to give him extra power, while he also revealed another weapon in his already extensive armoury - a computer.
Apparently Muster and his manager/coach, Ronnie Leitgeb, have been feeding all of his opponents' facts into the machine to try to figure out patterns of play. They will feed in the Sampras statistics today, particularly noting, as they did with Ivanisevic, the trends of his serve so its direction can be anticipated in certain crucial situations. We are all creatures of habit.
Sampras, who won this title in 1994, remains the favourite, but Costa, who last year won the resurrected Bournmouth title and finished the year ranked 13th, pushed the American extremely hard, hitting some gloriously fluid winners of both wings. In the end Sampras, who served more than 20 aces, just had that extra weight of shot to close the Spaniard out 6-3, 6-7, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, although he was often extremely tentative, notably at the net where his volleys were frequently pushed rather than punched.
After so very nearly succumbing toe another Spaniard, Alex Corretja, in the quarter finals of last year's US Open, Sampras' only Grand Slam title last year, the American took a close look at his dietary preparations, stepping up his carbohydrate loading.
Could it be that the frequency of these Grand Slam five setters are a sign that his powers are beginning to wane? It would be foolish to push this hypothesis too far too soon, but it is interesting that Boris Becker also took him to five sets twice late last year, in the Stuttgart indoor tournament, which Becker won, and in the ATP finals in Hanover, when Sampras triumphed in a most thrillingly fluctuating match.
