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Yzaga stuns struggling Sampras in five-setter
AP
September 8, 1994
Peruvian Jaime Yzaga pulled off the biggest stunner of the upset-filled US Open by knocking out ailing world number one Pete Sampras in a heart-stopping five-setter.
Sampras looked ill, injured or both and had trouble moving for most of the match. But he showed tremendous heart by gutting out the three hour and 37 minute marathon before going down 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 to the 26th-ranked Yzaga.
'It's huge beating the number one player at a Grand Slam,' said Yzaga, who reached his first US Open quarter-final in his 10th attempt.
'It's the best feeling. It cannot be better than this.' Defending champion Sampras, looking like he could collapse at any time after the third set, nearly staged a miraculous comeback from 5-2 down in the fifth when he battled back to level it at 5-5.
But he did not have enough left to hold off Yzaga, who played well enough to beat most anyone on Tuesday.
'It was kind of tough at the end - really, really tough,' Yzaga said.
'It's a good thing I kept my head. He didn't give up at all and kept fighting. That's what makes a great champion.' Asked if he had felt things were falling apart after he double-faulted while up 5-3, 30-love and eventually lost the game, Yzaga said: 'I knew the match wasn't over until it was over, till the last point.' At 5-5, Yzaga held serve, then broke Sampras for the match.
'I kept my cool,' said the 26-year-old from Lima, who compared the home-crowd cheering for Sampras to the atmosphere at a Davis Cup match.
'It was difficult as the people were getting into it, but I was a little lucky at the end - broke him the last game.' While conceding that his serve was failing all day - he converted 45 per cent of his first serves and double-faulted nine times - Yzaga still was able to insist: 'I played a great match.' 'You have to give him credit,' said Sampras. 'He played well, the crowd was against him and a huge match point - you have to give him credit. He's a consistent player and he's good.' 'Jaime was playing unbelievable,' said Sampras's coach Tim Gullikson.
Sampras, the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, was forced to take the summer off because of an ankle injury and his lack of match preparation apparently affected his fitness.
'You've got to play matches, you can't win matches on an exercise bike,' said Gullikson.
The USTA medical staff confirmed that Sampras was suffering from exhaustion.
'He gave a great effort,' Gullikson said. 'He's not Superman, you can't fault him for his effort.
'I've watched him for three years and I've never seen him get tired like this,' his coach continued.
'After the third set I thought he could suck it up, but it looked like he was going to pass out.' 'I'm just not in great shape right now. I just hit the wall today,' Sampras said.
'Both feet are raw, my whole body is sore.' Yzaga, obviously aware of Sampras' limited mobility, tried to force the top seed to run as much as possible.
Often Sampras did not even go after shots he would normally reach easily. And he was unable to tee off on many of the balls he did get to because he was arriving so late.
Sampras, usually a ferocious net player, found himself battling the Peruvian baseliner from the backcourt and trying to survive off aces and service winners.
The two-time Open champion, up 2-1 in sets, desperately tried to avoid a fifth set by breaking Yzaga in the 12th game of the fourth to force a tie-break.
But after winning the first two points, Sampras watched his first serve desert him. Yzaga won six of the next seven points and sent the match into the fifth with an emphatic put-away after Sampras barely returned the Peruvian's serve.
Still, Sampras put up a valiant effort till the bitter end.
After belting a forehand into the corner to win an exceptionally long point during his march back from 2-5 down, Sampras fell over onto his back and just lay there, arms over his head. It was not clear if he even had the energy to get back up, but of course he did.
Sampras said he actually felt better in the last four games because the crowd was pumping him up and 'the adrenaline was high'.
Yzaga in the quarter-finals will face unseeded Czech Karel Novacek, who beat Argentine Javier Frana 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
Perhaps the best indication of how expected form has completely fallen apart at the 1994 Open, however, comes from the other fourth-rounder played on Tuesday.
In a match that could have featured Jim Courier against Stefan Edberg in a battle of Grand Slam champions, 71st-ranked Swede Jonas Bjorkman won a quarter-final berth by outlasting 85th-ranked German Joern Renzenbrink 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3.
