They’re Unable to Stay Course

INDIAN WELLS —  A couple of old golfing buddies, Pete Sampras and Todd Martin, left their tennis games blowing in the wind Saturday, meaning they can spend today on the course instead of the court.

On a day the real Windy City was located here, some 2,000 miles southwest of Chicago, and the event known now as the Pacific Life Open would have been best served with a telecast on the Weather Channel instead of ESPN, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Tim Henman of England wrecked today’s all-American final.

Hewitt, ranked No. 1 in the world and seeded No. 1 here, beat a listless Sampras, 6-2, 6-4, defeating for the fourth time in a row the former top-ranked player in the world and the the player with the most Grand Slam victories in history. Only three other players--Michael Chang, Wayne Ferreira and Richard Krajicek, have done that.

The last time Sampras, 30, beat the 21-year-old from Adelaide was in the semifinals of the 2000 U.S. Open. Since Hewitt beat Sampras in the opening set of last year’s U.S. Open final, en route to a 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory, Sampras has won only eight games in four sets.

“I think the way he is playing,” Sampras said, “he’s playing some of the best tennis in the world.”

Henman, 11th in the world in the tennis entry system and a 27-year-old veteran with nearly $7 million in prize money, took out Martin, 31, in a similarly listless match, 6-3, 6-3. Martin, twice a Grand Slam event finalist and a force on the tour since 1992, has slipped all the way to 64th in the entry rankings and needed a wild card to get into the draw.

The mediocre performances of Sampras and Martin were equally attributable to blustery, swirling, chilling winds that gusted through the desert at bursts of up to 40 mph and the smart, angled, strategic shots from Hewitt and Henman that gusted past their step-slower, in-the-twilight-of-their-careers opponents.

Sampras called Hewitt the best wind player on the tour and said he deserved all the credit for handling the adverse conditions so well. Martin was more succinct.

“Weather, wind and Tim [were the problems],” he said. “Last I checked, the wind doesn’t blow just on one side of the net.”

Sampras had no break points against Hewitt and spent much of the match just struggling to get his service toss to stay in one place long enough for him to hit the ball. He hit only three aces, one fewer than the ordinary-serving Hewitt, who attacks from the baseline, not the net, as Sampras does. Sampras also made 30 unforced errors to Hewitt’s 14; Hewitt was hitting 28 winners to Sampras’ 18.

“My game in the wind is just a bit vulnerable,” said Sampras.

Hewitt, a bulldog at 5 feet 11 and 150 pounds, is a young Andre Agassi without the charisma. The recently retired Pat Rafter, Hewitt’s Australian Davis Cup and Olympic teammate, as well as an opponent on the tour for the last several years, once called Hewitt “a feisty little bugger.” In Australia, that is a high compliment.

Hewitt agreed with Sampras that the conditions were awful, adding that the worst part was the “gold crap” blowing in the players’ faces. In the United States, “gold crap” is sand.

Hewitt said he dealt with the conditions by playing the percentages, by being a bit more patient. When he was told that Sampras called him the best wind player on the tour, Hewitt laughed and said, “Maybe I should hope for a hurricane tomorrow.”

Odds are, he won’t need it. Henman is 0-7 against No. 1-ranked players. He also is 0-3 against Hewitt, and that includes a grass-court final last summer at the Queen’s Club event just before Wimbledon. Grass is Henman’s best surface, as well as his heritage, and if the baseline-banging Hewitt can handle Henman on grass, the medium-slow hard courts of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden should be a real comfort zone for the Australian.

The Pacific Life Open is one of nine Masters Series events on the men’s tour, with a status just below the four Grand Slam events. Hewitt, who can pocket $392,000 with a win today--second place is worth $206,000--has never won a Masters Series event. He made it to the final at Stuttgart, Germany, in 2000, but lost a tough five-setter.

“I think I am a better player than that now,” Hewitt said.

Henman would agree.

“It was pretty impressive, watching him in the locker room beforehand,” said Henman, who said he probably wouldn’t serve and volley as much as Sampras did Saturday, because when Hewitt gets a target at the net, he is even more difficult to beat. “I’m going to relish the challenge. I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Neither does the men’s tournament, which has endured the loss of its two superstars--Sampras and first-round loser Andre Agassi--the worst weather in the history of the event since the wind blew in Wednesday, and even what was perhaps a tennis first when a 25-foot, 200-pound courtside signboard blew over in the middle of the Sampras-Hewitt match. Despite the loud bang, the two played on until Hewitt lost the point and then complained to the umpire that the point should have been stopped and replayed.

“He missed, then he complained about it afterward,” Sampras said. “That wasn’t too cool.”

But on this day, everything else was for Hewitt, whose one-sided victory over Sampras was the best example all week of how to deal with this desert’s storm.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Today’s Final

Lleyton Hewitt vs.

Tim Henman

Pacific Life Open men’s

singles final at Indian Wells

10:30 a.m., Ch. 7