By STEVE WILSTEIN
The Associated Press
May 25, 1999
PARIS (AP) -- For 4 hours and 18 minutes, Pete Sampras played as if he were
trapped in a movie montage of his ugliest and longest matches.
He muttered and sputtered, letting his mind drift back to the way he survived
so many other brutal five setters. Matches when he was sick and cramped and
barely able to stand, his racquet serving as a crutch between points.
Then he won once again, shuffling away caked in red clay.
``It's 'Welcome to Paris,' I guess,'' Sampras said after taking his
first-round match Tuesday against Juan Antonio Marin 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5, 7-6
(11-9), 6-4 at the French Open.
``How did I survive it? Grace of God, I guess,'' he said.
Sampras did everything he could to blow this match, including double-faulting
on match point in the fourth-set tiebreaker, but then he did everything he
could to win it on wobbly legs in the fifth.
``It was just pure will, just hanging in there and fighting hard,'' he said.
``I wasn't going to stop, by any means. When it's in the fifth set, it comes
down to heart and how much you want it.''
Sampras wants to win his first French Open in the worst way, and that's just
how he started out. He was determined to play true to his own attacking
style, but he found himself becoming tentative against the clay-loving Marin,
and too often got caught in the no-man's land between the baseline and the
net.
Marin, a 5-foot-9 Costa Rican who had lost all seven of his previous Grand
Slam matches and was ranked No. 92, displayed a knack for keeping the ball in
play and frustrating Sampras. Never did that come in handier than when
Sampras held the first of his two match points at 8-7 in the fourth-set
tiebreaker.
Sampras drove a forehand crosscourt into the corner that looked like a solid
winner to everyone except Marin.
``Pete thought I was not going to get to that ball,'' Marin said. ``All the
crowd also, because they shouted like the match was over. I got to that ball,
and I run to the other side because I know I have to.''
Surprised as Sampras was, he whacked another shot the other way, only to see
Marin track that down, too, with what he called, with no exaggeration, ``an
unbelievable backhand'' down the line that Sampras couldn't touch. Instead,
Sampras lunged and tumbled to the court, lay sprawled for a long moment, then
sat up with the back of his white shirt, shorts and socks covered in red.
Marin raised his hands in triumph as the crowd roared, and he would have more
reason to celebrate a few points later. Serving for the match at 9-8, Sampras
double-faulted, then Marin swiped the set with the help of two big forehands.
Sampras wasn't too concerned about most of his 14 double-faults, though that
one hurt.
``It depends on the time of the double-fault,'' he said. ``Match point isn't
recommended.''
But when it came down to the fifth set, with the match already 3 1-2 hours
old and evening shadows blanketing the court, Sampras had a familiar feeling.
He'd been down this road many times, winning 26 of his 36 previous
five-setters. He remembered digging out a match, even when he was sick and
vomiting, against Alex Corretja in the 1996 U.S. Open. He remembered how he
suffered with cramps but won three other five setters at the French Open the
same year.
He would just have to find a way to do it again.
``Sure, when you're in the fifth set you think of matches you played,'' he
said. ``You know how to conserve energy. When it's a big point, you push
hard. If it's 40-love, there's no sense in killing yourself. Experience
always helps. The longer the match goes, the better I feel about my chances.
You believe in yourself that you can kind of come through, and I did today.''
As relieved as he was to win, Sampras knows that a five-setter to start off
the tournament doesn't bode well for his chances to win the one major that
has eluded him.
``It's never good to play 4 1-2 hours in the first round,'' he joked. ``But
I'm still alive.''