KUALA LUMPUR, 22 November 2007 — Former world No. 1 Pete Sampras yesterday said he had no plans to return to professional tennis after being defeated by top-ranked Roger Federer in an exhibition match.
“No. That is an easy answer,” the 36-year-old American told reporters ahead of today’s showpiece match at the Malawati Stadium, just west of the capital Kuala Lumpur as part of a three-match exhibition tour across Asia.
They will play a one-off match here as part of Malaysia’s 50th anniversary celebrations of independence from Britain.
Sampras, who fired two aces in his first service game against Federer, said he could still serve well but admitted the new generation of players play a power-packed game.
“I still feel I can serve well and impose a bit of my will. But we are seeing fewer players really serve — most hit the ball hard and heavy — few are really serving.
“You see more contrast in the 1990s. Now guys are just hitting the ball really hard,” he said. Federer and Sampras met just once on the ATP Tour and the Swiss showed Sampras the exit with a five-set victory in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2001. The defeat ended Sampras’ remarkable reign at the All England Club. Sampras retired from professional tennis in 2002.
In their showdown Tuesday in Seoul, the Swiss triumphed over the balding Sampras in two straight sets in just 61 minutes. The 26-year-old Federer is expected to beat Sampras easily again, but he admitted that Sampras — the winner of an unprecedented 14 Grand Slams — still has the sting.
“I know how good Pete was and people tend to forget the greats. If you look at my record and his record, he is still way ahead of me,” Federer said.
“After playing Sampras yesterday, this is the Pete I remember, coming at you, attacking you.” Organizers tickets have sold out with some 12,000 fans expected to watch the game. The three-match series ends in Macau on Saturday.
• World No. 2 Rafael Nadal joined Roger Federer yesterday in playing down the threat posed by match-fixing, saying tennis was 100 percent clean.
The men’s game has been hit by a series of allegations about match-fixing in recent months, with a number of players saying they had been offered money to throw matches. They all said they had rebuffed the offers.
When asked if he thought the issue had been blown out of proportion, Nadal told Reuters: “Totally agree. I’m sure everything is 100 percent clean.” His thoughts echoed those of world No. 1 Federer, who said after winning the Masters Cup in Shanghai on Sunday: “It’s a great sport. It’s a clean sport and I hope that in the future it’s going to stay this way.” Matches on the men’s ATP tour have been under scrutiny since August when a clash between world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko and lowly-ranked Martin Vassallo Argeullo was voided by British betting exchange Betfair because of unusual betting patterns.
Davydenko, who retired hurt from the contest, denies any wrongdoing. Last week, the ATP suspended Italy’s 124th-ranked Alessio Di Mauro for nine months and fined him $60,000 because he bet on tennis, even though he did not try to influence matches.
Federer is in the Malaysian capital for a series of exhibition matches against American Pete Sampras, who said the sport’s image was being damaged by the talk of match-fixing.
“I have not been in touch with it and did not talk to any of the players but it doesn’t make the sport look good when you question its integrity,” Sampras, who holds the record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, told Reuters.
“I don’t know if it (Davydenko) is an isolated case but it’s something the tour needs to fix.” Nadal was also in Kuala Lumpur, where he defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet in an exhibition match on Tuesday.
Gasquet, the world number eight, said he had never been approached to throw a match.
“I think tennis is clean,” he told Reuters. “Nobody came to me to give me money to lose.”
