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| October 18, 2001 | Thursday | Rajab 30, 1422 |
Sampras stays on course for Masters Cup
STUTTGART (Germany) Oct 17: Pete Sampras stayed on course for a berth in the season-ending Masters Cup by beating Austria’s Stefan Koubek 6-3 7-6 on Wednesday in the second round of the Stuttgart Masters Series tournament.
The top seven players in the ATP Champions Race will make the Masters Cup in Sydney next month with Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic likely to join them as a Grand Slam winner.
Sampras, currently tied in seventh place with France’s Sebastien Grosjean in the Race standings, is chasing a 12th consecutive appearance in the event to end a miserable season on a positive note.
The former world number one, who has not won a tournament since Wimbledon last year, relied on his trademark attacking game to break Koubek in the sixth game before wrapping up the first set in 30 minutes.
But he was not as dominant in the second set and Koubek, who was a semifinalist in Vienna last week, forced him to a tie-break.
Sampras took it 7-5, an ace on a second serve giving him a match point on which Koubek netted a backhand.
Local favourite Tommy Haas had earlier recovered from a sluggish start to beat Dutchman Sjeng Schalken 4-6 7-6 6-2 in the day’s first match on centre court.
The last German left in the star-studded indoor event initially worried his fans by making too many unforced errors to lose the first set and go a break down early in the second.
But the 15th seed then picked up his game, breaking back in the sixth game of the second set to eventually force a tie-break which he won 7-2 when Schalken netted a backhand on break point.
Haas was two breaks up in the decisive set and serving for the match when Schalken saved three match points. But the German earned a fourth on which the unseeded Schalken hit a return into the net to bow out after two hours and 16 minutes.
Wednesady’s second round results (prefix number denotes seeding):
9-Pete Sampras (U.S.) beat Stefan Koubek (Austria) 6-3 7-6 (7-5); Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) beat 10-Alex Corretja (Spain) 3-6 6-2 6-4; 15-Tommy Haas (Germany) beat Sjeng Schalken (Netherlands) 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2; 8-Sebastien Grosjean (France) beat Albert Costa (Spain) 6-3 6-4; Guillermo Canas (Argentina) beat 16-Thomas Johansson (Sweden) 3-6 6-3 7-5
ZURICH: Jennifer Capriati got her reign as world number one off to a winning but less than impressive start on Wednesday, struggling to a 6-3 3-6 6-2 second round win over Russian wildcard Nadia Petrova at the Swisscom Challenge.
Following a first round bye and a doubles loss, the new number one quickly discovered that life at the top was not going to be any easier and needed a tough hour and 40 minutes to defeat her 46th ranked opponent.
Wednesday’s second round results:
2-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) beat Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-3 3-6 6-2; 8-Elia Farina (Italy) beat Lisa Raymond (U.S.) 6-2 6-4—Reuters
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