Peter The Great The U.S. Davis Cup victory over Russia was stars and stripes and Sampras forever. by Leigh Montville , Sports Illustrated December 11, 1995 The limits to Pete Sampras's heroics were defined in the first half hour of his match against Andrei Chesnokov last Friday afternoon at the indoor Olympic Stadium in Moscow. A voice came over the public- address system and requested in English that the crowd, as a courtesy to the players, please shut off all mobile telephones." the No. 1-ranked player in tenis had arrived too late to slay any ideological dragons. they all were talking to their brokers. Facts were facts. This was the beep-beep capitalist present. One, two, three decades ago, anytime until as recently as six years ago, the work Sampras performed last weekend in leading the U.S. to a 3-2 victory over Russia in this year's Davis Cup finals would have ranked him right up there with the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team in cold war competitive glory. He would have been a homebred, well-fed testament to the virtues of the free-enterprise system and apple pie. Instead, he was merely the gallant warrior who refused to quit, carried off the court at the end of his three-hour, 38minute, five-set win over Chesnokov, cramped and pained, yet returning the next day to team with Todd Martin to take the doubles and yet again the next day to be almost invincible in a 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 win over Russia's best player, 21-year-old Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Wouldn't Richard Nixon, sports fan and president, have smiled in the '60s or '70s? Ronald Reagan would have immediately sent an invitation ot the White House in the Star Wars '80s for such a triumph. But the hammers and sickles are long gone from the walls, and the daughters of the sexbom double agents now distribute free samples of Coca-Cola and vodka rather than look for microfilm stashed behind potted plants. Detente may be good for the world at large, but it has taken the edge off sports drama. "I guess we're all the same now," U.S. coach Tom Gullikson said. "We're all out there lookinng for the same dollars." Sampras, who has won more of those dollars than any other player this year, was not even supposed to be a big part of the finals. With the Russians choosing clay as the surface, he suggested to Gullikson that Andre Agassi and Jim Courrier , both with games better suited to the slow surface, play the singles matches. Sampras would play only the doubles with Martin. However, when the chest muscle that Agassi injured during the Davis Cup semifinals against Sweden in late September failed to heal in time, plans changed. Sampras moved to the singles, and Richey Reneberg was called on to team with Martin in the doubles. "This is a team event," Sampras said. "The idea is to get three points in the best way possible. I told Tom I would do anything he wanted." The Russians had decided that clay was their big ally. Last year they had played host to Sweden in the finals and lost 4-1 on a hard surface. This year they brought Chesnokov, a clay specialist, into the singles matches with Kafelnikov, who is ranked sixth in the world. they spread the dirt o half the floor of the mammoth stadium, which was built for the 1980 Olympics, and went to work. slow tennis was good. Slower tennis was better. The Russians apparently watered down the court so heavily the night before their semifinal against Germany that the International Tennis Federation fined them $25,000 for making the surface unplayable. The referee ordered the court to be dried out, but the only drying equipment available was six hair dryers borrowed from the Olympic Penta Hotel next door. With no extension cords for the hair dryers and only two electrical outlets, the court remained a lovely, slow mess. Russia won 3-2, Chesnokov taking the final match in a five-set marathon over Michael Stich. That Sampras was in and Agassi was out - even though he arrived to sit on the bench and cheer - said that the Americans had "given away" the doubles and that the big worry was Courier. Uh-oh. "I don't know why he would say that," said Gullikson, whose twin brother, Tim, stricken with brain cancer, has been Sampras's longtime coach. "I guess they don't know Pete. I would take him on my side for one-on-one tennis, two-on-two, three-on-three, any surface. I would take him for golf." Sampras's grand run began and almost ended with the bring-a-lunch defeat of Chesnokov. when he collapsed after the final point of a 3- 6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 victory, Sampras looked as if he might not play again for a long while. He was dragged off the court, arms strung over two U.S. trainers, his feet leaving tracks in the clay as if he were a four-wheel drive vehicle heading to a Vermont cabin on a snowy day. Gullikson said he never had seen anything like this. His eyes misted at the very thought of the scene. what if Chesnokov's final shot had not crashed into the net? Could Sampras have played another point? "Everybody underrates him because he doesn't show his emotions," Gullikson said. "But after a match like this, how can you question his desire or guts?" Amazingly, Sampras walked into the press conference a half hour later and said he felt fine. His body simply had cramped. His left groin and right hamstring went at the same time. A massage and some muscle relaxers brought him back. How far back? Less than 24 hours later, with the U.S. in trouble because courier had lost the second singles to Kafelnikov by a score of 7-6, 7-5, 6-3, Dampras stood beside Martin and they put together a 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 doubles win over Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy. That victory put the U.S. within one match of the championship. "We didn't know he was going to play the doubles until about an hour before the match," Gullikson said. "He showed up stiff but said he could go, so we made the change. If you have the best player in the world and he can play, you're probably going to use him. I had to give him two of my white shirts, and we had to send back to the hotel for a pair of white shorts, because it all was decided so late." When Sampras appeared Sunday and said he felt stiff again, Gullikson said, "Great." Sampras proceeded to play what he called "the best match on clay I've ever played in my life." Usually hurt by a big hitter's characteristic impatience on clay, he picked his spots against Kafelnikov. His shots even sounded different from those hit by Kafelnikov, a louder whack to the Russian's softer thunks. Even Kafelnikov recognized the difference. "You saw when Pete was fresh and not tired in the first two sets, his serve was flawless," he said. "In the third set, his serve shattered a little bit, but I still could not manage to keep him on the court. That was the plan - keep him on the court." "The first two sets were as good as I've ever seen him play," Gullikson said. "He barely made an error." The Russian crowd - a standard, standing-room-only 13,000 every day - did not seem bothered much by the results. This was not an old Russia, workers for the Motherland corwd. this was a society gathering, closer to a Las Vegas fight crowd than any old-line Party rally. gone were the henna rinses and pink lipstick on the women and the ill-fitting suits on the men. this was an Armani crowd, Mercedes-Benzes with drivers waiting outside, politicians and fast- buck enterpreneurs and gangsters and bodyguards walking the same ground inside. The reach of capitalism was on display everywhere, from the specical "VIP village" in the stadium to the rock music played between sets to the sponsor signs for the Our Home Is Russia political party that hopes to retain control of the parliament in the upcoming elections. This was a big-event crowd, no different from the crowd that saw Diana Ross perform in the Kremlin and will see Claudia Schiffer sell perfume at a Moscow fashion show this week. "If you had told me six years ago it would be like this, I would have said, 'Unbelievable,' " Yuri Zakharyou, a columnist for the Russian magazine Tennis Plus said. "But now? I say this is expected. This is life." It is for Sampras as well. "What happened this weekend could have happened ust about anyplace," he said. "Outside of one trip to Red Square and a look at Lenin's tomb, my whole time here has been either in the hotel with room service or at the court." Sampras, who reportedly made $25,000 for his three days of work, was scheduled to play in this week's Grand Slam Cup in Munich, where he is guaranteed $100,000 for playing at least one match and could take home more than a million dollars if he wins the tournament. Kafelnikov was also set to go to Munich to make a lot of money. No hammerms. No sickles. No difference. At the end of the final press conference a Russian television jounalist presented Gullikson with a goldfish in a bowl "to go along with your silver trophy." The journalist said that the fish was good luck and that Gullikson and everyone else on the team should make a wish. Sampras said he wished for good health and "maybe winning the million bucks." Other players made other wishes. Gullikson looked at the fish and the journalist and smiled. "Maybe a little tartar sauce?" he said. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Sampras Serves U.S. a Davis Cup Title By Lee Hockstader Washington Post Foreign Service December 4, 1995 MOSCOW, Dec. 3 -- They said Pete Sampras wasn't supposed to be a great clay court player. They said he would be the weak link for the United States in the 1995 Davis Cup finals against Russia. Trouble is, they forgot to tell Pete Sampras. Having won once in a dramatic singles match Friday and again as half of the U.S. doubles team Saturday, Sampras returned for a third straight match today with probably his best clay court performance ever. Powered by a virtually unreturnable serve, deft volleying and punishing forehands, he routed Russian ace Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), leading the Americans to a 3-2 victory and their 31st Davis Cup championship since the tournament began in 1900. "I've never seen better clay court tennis," U.S. captain Tom Gullikson said. "The combination of power and patience and precision serving. . . . It was flawless tennis." Sampras, 24, the world's No. 1 player, was untouchable through two sets, then staved off a spirited challenge by Kafelnikov in the third. The victory, in just more than two hours, gave the United States its third point in the best-of-five-point final, clinching the Cup and making Jim Courier's subsequent loss to Andrei Chesnokov moot. The crowd of 14,000 in Olympic Stadium was chanting Kafelnikov's name, howling at every point won by the Russian and even at Sampras's missed first serves. Russia, which made it to the Davis Cup finals for the first time last year against Sweden, has never won the title and had never played the Americans before this weekend's event. In a country that lately has developed something of a tennis craze?led by No. 1 fan Boris Yeltsin?a measure of the excitement was that the three-day finals were attended by the Russian prime minister, deputy prime minister, foreign minister, chief presidential aide and the mayor of Moscow, to say nothing of dozens of lesser celebrities from Moscow's new and moneyed elite. Yeltsin, still recovering from heart problems, couldn't make it but was said to be watching the live TV broadcast from his bed. But Sampras managed to neutralize the crowd, and Kafelnikov, by serving 16 aces and allowing just seven points against his serve through two sets. Sampras was pleased enough to allow himself a little crowing. "The Russians were looking at [me] as being kind of the weak link on the slow red clay [but] I certainly played some good tennis when I had to. To play on my worst surface against very tough opponents and a very tough crowd . . . I think today's match was probably my best clay court match I've played." Beyond the Davis Cup, Sampras and non-playing team captain Gullikson share a bond that made today's victory all the more poignant. Sampras's longtime coach and mentor, Tim Gullikson, the twin brother of the U.S. Davis Cup captain, was diagnosed this year with brain cancer. In the postmatch news conference, both men made reference to Tim Gullikson's struggle. "For me personally it's been a tough year with my twin brother Tim really in a much bigger competition, fighting, really, for his life," said Gullikson, choking up. "So?for us to win this thing means a lot." As the Americans basked in their victory, Kafelnikov, 21, who is ranked sixth in the world, could only shake his head. Sampras "didn't leave many openings," he said. It's not that Kafelnikov, who beat Courier Friday, had no strategy against Sampras. He had watched the American collapse with hamstring cramps and get dragged off the court Friday after beating Chesnokov. With Sampras's legs still tight, the Russian's game plan was to work Sampras's legs by drawing out the rallies and making him run. But Sampras was too aggressive, rushing the net for 20 volley winners and leaving Kafelnikov flat-footed with supersonic forehand winners cross-court and inside-out. Kafelnikov staged a rally in the third set, losing his serve twice but returning the favor with a pair of breaks to force a tiebreaker. But Sampras was too good, and he iced it with his second ace of the tiebreaker at match point. "If I would have lost the third, I think I would have had the energy to keep on playing," Sampras said. "But how effective I would have been, I don't know." Gullikson said the Russians, who had suggested last week that Courier was the stronger player on slower clay courts, had underestimated Sampras, who has struggled on clay from time to time. "I'm thinking, `Geez, here's this guy, he's number one in the world, he's won the Italian Open [on clay, in 1994], he's won his two matches in Davis Cup [quarterfinals, on clay] in Palermo for us this year, he's been in the quarterfinals of the French Open [on clay] a few times.' I mean, this guy can play." He went on: "The great players have a sense of history. . . . "When the great players go down in the history books, not only will they be remembered by Grand Slam singles titles but how many times did they help their country win the Davis Cup. . . . It's a special thing, it's a team thing." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Davis Cup Final 1995 Virtuoso Performance Sampras Defies Critics And Seizes Victory For America John Parsons reports from Moscow Tennis World Magazine, Feb/March issue, 1996 The major hotels in Moscow try to make American and British visitors feel welcome by providing the two English languages daily newspapers printed in the Russian capital. It was with more than passing interest, therefore, that in the two or three days leading up to the Davis Cup final, Tom Gullikson read in them not only that the Russians thought that on clay Pete Sampras would be the weak link in the American team but that he and his players were "ready to concede the doubles." As everyone was to discover as the United States won the Davis Cup for the 31st time, and with a rubber to spare, those who held such views were spectacularly wrong on both counts.  Indeed, the contribution by Sampras will be remembered as one of the great virtuoso match-winning performances in Davis Cup history. For although Sampras is by no means the only player to win both singles and be part of the winning doubles partnership in a Davis Cup final, the circumstances in which he did so more than justified Gullikson's view that it was "nothing short of phenomenal." Recall, for a moment, the scenario:  Sampras, seldom at his most confident, let alone his most proficient on clay, even an indoor clay court which is not quite so slow as the same surface outdoors, clearly would not have minded had Andre Agassi felt fit enough and in the right frame of mind to play, for that would probably have meant him leaving the singles responsibilities to the team-mate who had persuaded him to play Davis Cup in 1995m and Jim Courier. Agassi, however, despite seemingly hitting the ball well enough while filming a television commercial in California ten days earlier, was still insisting that his strained stomach muscles, while not seriously injured, could become a serious problem if he did not rest until the New Year. Rightly or wrongly, there was a distinct impression around the American camp of strained relations between Agassi and the rest of the team when he suddenly arrived in Moscow to support them - but was not invited to join any of their practice or interview sessions - about 36 hours before the tie began. Having lost the first set of the first rubber to Andrei Chesnokov, the omens were not good for either Sampras or the United States.  And yet, between the frequent ringing of portable telephones, which indicated how swiftly Moscovites are adjusting to capitalistic ways, the Wimbledon Champion began to knuckle down. The serve started to find a dominating groove; the forehand was a mighty weapon and he was increasingly choosing the right moments to go to the net. ATTACK Even so, the final moments of Sampras 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 triumph could hardly have been more dramatic.  From 3-3 in that final set, immediately after saving break point, Sampras showed signs of cramping.  On the next changeover, with Chesnokov leading 4-3, Gullikson told Sampras, "Go on the attack." He did so with such determination and relish that he took the next ten points.  At 40-15, Sampras opened the court but fluffed his backhand volley on the first match point.  A tense, lengthy rally then developed.  The Sampras smash, which might have rounded things off, was returned with a spectacular defensive lob to keep the point going. Finally, with Sampras again at the net, Chesnokov could not cope with his opponent's backhand volley.  Within seconds of raising his arms in triumph, however, Sampras collapsed on the court.  Gullikson, with trainer Bob Russo and Dr. George Fareed in hot pursuit, raced to help him and within moments the American hero was being dragged off to the locker room, with his feet trailing behind him. "I cramped in my left groin and right hamstring, in fact I cramped in my whole body and just went down" said Sampras after taking 45 minutes to recover. And yet next day, with the score at 1-1 after Yevgeny Kafelnikov had been too consistently effective on serve and off the ground in beating Courier 7-6, 7-5, 6-3, Sampras responded willingly to Gullikson?s request to replace Richey Reneberg as Todd Martin's partner for the doubles. Everyone knew this was likely to be the pivotal rubber.  In the first set, Sampras and Martin, who had not played together since winning the Stella Artois tournament at Queen?s Club in June, looked like two ordinary players trying to play doubles against a genuine doubles team. Yet Gullikson's belief that the combination of Martin and Sampras's bludgeoning serves would pay off proved correct.  As in the 1994 final against Sweden, Kafelnikov, from starting off as the best player on the court, became the most brittle.  And Martin, who started so nervously, finished stronger than anyone, which was probably just as well because although he continued to serve brilliantly, Sampras was tiring rapidly in the third set. The Americans won 7-5, 6-4, 6-3, with the match winning shot coming appropriately enough from Martin who had bravely and crucially produced four brilliant serves from 4-4, 15-40 in the second set. OUTSTANDING So to Day Three.  The balance of power had clearly shifted as a result of the doubles and that showed in Kafelnikov?s body language, although in fairness to him, the tennis Sampras produced that day was outstanding. "The best match I?ve ever played on clay." Said the American after a 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 triumph which won them the cup for the 31st time, left the Russians deflated for the second year in succession and also reflected the degree to which Sampras?s energy was draining away, set by set. Many felt that had Kafelnikov snatched that third set ? and Sampras had to save five break points, four of them with aces or other big serves in the second game ? it could still have swung the other way.  The Sampras right leg was tightening up again and despite breaking for 6-5, he was then broken to love when serving for the tie and the trophy one game later.  In the tiebreak however, a missed forehand by the Russian at 2-2 gave Sampras the chance he needed to pounce.  He took it 7-4 on his 16th ace and although, by recent standards the American celebrations were muted ? perhaps they realised Sampras was not in a good enough state to be tossed in the air ? the praise from his captain, at the end of a year which had been so emotional for both of them with Tom?s twin brother and Sampras?s coach, struck down with brain cancer, was rightly untainted. If in 1996 Sampras goes on to conquer the French Open, he may well look back upon the Davis Cup Final in Moscow as the moment he showed that even on the surface he would prefer to shun, he can be the best in the world. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Will Spirit of '95 move U.S. team? By Charles Bricker South Florida Sun-Sentinel November 28, 2004 U.S. players, heavy underdogs in the Davis Cup final, leave for Spain on Monday, almost nine years to the day the 1995 team flew to Russia and produced perhaps the most dramatic win in Cup history. On clay, his worst surface, Pete Sampras played all three days, won his Friday singles and went into a full body cramp at the finish, then came back to win the doubles with Todd Martin on Saturday and clinched the title with a singles win on Sunday. Can this year's team, led by Andy Roddick and also playing on clay, reprise that spectacular road triumph in its Dec. 3-5 tie? "One of the great things about the away match is that it's easier to keep your guys focused," said Tom Gullikson, who coached the '95 team and made the tough but critical decision to push Sampras into the doubles. "You don't have as many friends and family around. It's just you against their whole supporting cast, like a bunker mentality. You're the underdog, and you get that sense of, `Let's just stay together and do it.''' Roddick has won on red clay, though it's certainly not his best surface. Mardy Fish and Vince Spadea, who will compete for the second singles spot, do not have winning clay records, regardless of the color of the dirt. Only the Bryan twins, winners of the 2003 French Open doubles, are favorites to win a point in Sevilla. In 1995, the U.S. team was no clear favorite, either, despite having two of the top players in the world in Sampras and Jim Courier, who had won consecutive French Opens in 1991 and 1992 and who was French runner-up in 1993. It turned out to be one of the magical moments in Sampras' career. And, in the end, one of the most sobering, and one that soured him on Davis Cup. "We came back to the States from Moscow, and no one really cared," Gullikson said. "There was no invite to the White House. No media. Fans couldn't have cared less. I remember Pete saying, `I didn't expect a ticker tape parade but something to show appreciation for what we did.' "From that point on, it became really hard to recruit guys to play for Davis Cup." Sampras in the opening match needed nearly four hours and five sets to defeat Andrei Chesnokov 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4. As he raised his arms in jubilation after the final point, he collapsed on the court and spent much of the next 12 hours getting massage and IV feedings. Courier lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and it was 1-1 going into the second day, and Gullikson was not at all confident with the way Richey Reneberg was playing doubles. "I went to Pete and told him, `I think we might need you tomorrow.' He said, `I don't know. I haven't played doubles in eight months. Why don't you get Richey and Todd [Martin] ready and we'll see how I feel.' "Saturday, I hit with Pete about a half hour and he said, `I don't feel great, but you're the captain.' And I said, `Then, you're in.' I had to give him my shirt because he didn't have a matching white shirt to go with Todd's. "Pete started slowly, and I'll never forget how we were a break down early in the first set and he was struggling with his return. All of a sudden, we had a break point and Andrei Olhovskiy tried to hit some cute, angled shot. Pete tracked it down and hit a winner, and Kafelnikov stared at Olhovskiy and began yelling at him. I knew we had them." On Sunday, Sampras, clearly not 100 percent fit, ran through Kafelnikov in straight sets for the clinching third point of the tie. Andre Agassi, who had, despite injury, flown to Russia to be with the team, sat on the sideline with Courier, and they marveled at how Sampras was exploding on the ball. "It was the high point of my coaching career, something really special," said Gullikson, whose twin, Tim, who also had been Sampras' coach, had been diagnosed with brain cancer in January. "Pete and I were thinking about him all the time," said Gullikson. "I remember calling Timmy after a practice one day and told him, `I'm a little worried about Pete. He's not going at it very hard.' He said not to worry about Pete. When the match starts, he'll be there." And he was. Roddick knows the history of the '95 team, and maybe it will inspire him. Certainly, for the U.S. to beat Spain he's going to have to elevate his clay-court game. The Americans are going to Europe as heavy long shots, but strange things happen. Ask Gully. It's Davis Cup. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Another article: "American Ascension", By Bud Collins.