INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- It didn't take Andre Agassi long to join Pete Sampras in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters Series. Agassi defeated Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-2, 6-1 on Friday night.
|  | | Pete Sampras returns a shot to Patrick Rafter of Australia during quarterfinals at the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series on Friday. |
Agassi said that the brutal conditions at Indian Wells gave him an assist.
"The wind is really howling around," Agassi said. "My game is really suited for the wind."
It also helped that he had only 13 unforced errors and Lapentti only broke him once.
Agassi faces Australian Lleyton Hewitt, 20, in the semifinals Saturday.
"I think Lleyton is one of the best up-and-comers," Agassi said. "You have to beat him start to finish. My goal is to go out there and make him do the same thing."
A two-time finalist here, fourth-seeded Agassi is seeking his second title of
the year after winning his second consecutive Australian Open in
January. He was a finalist at the Sybase Open in San Jose two
weeks ago.
Hewitt, who is in his first semifinal here said he will have to
play far better against Agassi to advance.
"I'm going to have to go up to another level if I'm going
to match up with him," Hewitt said.
It's the first semifinal of the year for Sampras, who rediscovered
his return game in the second-set tiebreaker and repelled
Patrick Rafter, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
"People enjoyed it. It was fun to be a part of it. Of
course, I'm more happy that I got through it and won it,"
Sampras said of the two hour and 12 minute tussle that could
well have been his best played match of the year.
A three-time champion, Sampras entered this event with a
three-match losing streak but has dropped only two sets in four
victories to reach his first semifinal in 2001.
"If I would have walked off there losing, I would have felt
pretty good considering the way he played," Sampras said. "When
you have stats like that, you can always say it's a high level
of tennis."
But up until the second-set tiebreaker, Sampras could not
get a read on Rafter's thumping kick serve, which the
Australian effectively punched into the corners of the service
boxes.
At break point, Sampras found the range on his backhand
return and forced his opponent into a volley error at set
point.
Sampras gained confidence by winning the tiebreaker 7-4 and
carried that momentum into the third set, winning the first
nine points and breaking Rafter to go up 2-0 behind a series of
hard passing shots, most of them from his normally weaker
backhand side.
Rafter was not able to get near a break point in the third
set as Sampras served-and-volleyed with greater ease the
closer he got to victory.
Sampras closed out the highly athletic contest with two
aces.
Sampras, who finished with 47 winners and only seven
unforced errors, to 40 winners and 14 unforced errors from
Rafter, will play seventh-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia
in Saturday's semifinals.
After his afternoon match, Kafelnikov said it was too early to count out the tour's elder citizens.
The seventh-seeded Kafelnikov crushed American Jan-Michael
Gambill 6-4, 6-3, while young Australian Lleyton Hewitt humbled France's Nicolas Escude
6-1, 6-3 in their quarterfinal matches.
Despite the ATP Tour's efforts to promote young players
such as Hewitt, Gambill and Marat Safin in their latest
marketing campaign, Kafelnikov, 27, said the veterans will rule
the roost for the foreseeable future.
"The old guys still have enough experience to be on top and
dominate for maybe two to three years because Sampras is still
king on grass, Agassi can dominate hard court and indoor and I
can play basically anywhere I want," said Olympic champion
Kafelnikov.
"Experience is a huge factor in men's tennis. If you don't
have experience, you can't play at a high level."
The 20-year-old Hewitt more or less agreed, but added that
the young guys will pop up now and then.
"You look at Safin winning the U.S. Open, Kuerten winning
the French, guys like Philippoussis, Gambill, Federer, Ferrero
-- a lot of players making upsets. Whether they're able to do
it in the big matches, that's another story," Hewitt said.
Kafelnikov played a nearly perfect match, crushing 24
winners and committing only 14 unforced errors.
Gambill was never able to break the 27-year-old Russian,
whose cool-headed, all court attack stifled the young
American's powerful arsenal.
"That was probably my best match so far in the tournament,"
Kafelnikov said. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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Friday's results
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