Sports India

It was good to see the king. He’s lost a little on the top, he’s added a little around the middle, and he hasn’t actually worn his crown for three years, but the greatest tennis player who ever lived played in Avon Friday night.

Pete Sampras came to Connecticut for the second time in his career. He played for the Newport Beach Breakers in a World Team Tennis match against the Hartford FoxForce. He left with his Connecticut record intact. He still hasn’t beaten anyone here.

For the last time, perhaps, there was the chance to watch that effortless serving motion, the deft touch at net, and even with a strained right hamstring he managed a patented running forehand winner.

It was good to see the king, but a little weird too. I can’t shake this notion that it is a mighty long journey from the lawns of the All England Club to a wooden grandstand on a golf course playing before 2,000 spectators.

Pete looked regal when he

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strode into a packed press conference at Blue Fox Run Golf Course accompanied by two security guards, both wearing sidearms. Wherever Pete went, men with guns followed. Has Homeland Security jacked up the terror alert for tennis?

WTT vice president David Egdes introduced Pete as a man who needs no introduction. Then he added that Sampras doesn’t play often “in this market.” Hey Dave, this is Connecticut. It is my home. Save the “market” crap for the boardroom.

It isn’t hard to recall the last time Pete was in this “market.” It was the darkest day in the history of the Pilot Pen. In 1998 Leander Paes defeated Sampras in his one and only match here, 6-3, 6-4. On the same day, Guillaume Raoux beat defending U.S. Open champ Patrick Rafter, and Bohdan Ulihrach booted Petr Korda. In one day the Pilot Pen lost its top three seeds. It was a hot afternoon. Pete didn’t tank, but he didn’t look for that extra gear either. It was too close to the Open to expend too much energy in New Haven.

Friday, Sampras lost his singles set, 5-2, to South African Glenn Weiner, a man who got to No. 119 in the world two years ago. Sampras then teamed with former top-ranked doubles player Rick Leach, now age 42, and they lost to Weiner and a guy named Goran Dragicevic, 5-4.

Pete is 0-for-3 in Connecticut. This is not his best market.

But it didn’t matter what Pete Sampras did in make-shift Apple Arena Friday. He was here, and he helped the FoxForce fill a stadium on a threatening night.

Pete knows that tennis has moved on without him. But I also think he knows that it isn’t as much fun for us. He rose to No. 1 beating guys named Agassi, Courier, Chang, Becker, Rafter, Edberg, Kafelnikov, Ivanisevic, and others. It was much tougher to be No. 1 then than it is now. Deal with it, fans of Federer.

Pete watches Wimbledon, and he gets the itch, but he says definitively, “This is not a sign about coming back. I am just having fun and testing it out.”

Testing what out?

He said retirement has been fun. “I slept in, played golf, and did all the things I never had the chance to do. I didn’t talk tennis, didn’t read tennis, didn’t watch tennis.”

His participation in World Team Tennis is a huge boost to Billie Jean King’s creation. But he’s about to hit 35 and he got thumped by a South African that no one in Johannesburg has heard of.

But then he said something that may have answered the question: Pete, why are you doing this? He said that his people are talking to Roger Federer’s people, and an exhibition match might happen.

“I would welcome it,” he said. “He’s the greatest player right now. I still hit the ball well enough. I could compete a little. It could happen.”

Don’t do it Pete.

On the retirement of Andre Agassi following the 2006 U.S. Open, Sampras said, “It is the end of an era.”

That’s right Pete, that era is over, Andre’s era, and your era too. Tennis legends need to stay within their eras. Play World Team Tennis as a favor to Billie Jean, wave to your adoring fans one last time, but don’t put your career in a time warp.

You’re the king. Let’s leave it at that.

Joe Palladino can be reached at jpalladinorep-am.com.

The vision, if not caught by an Outdoor Life Network camera crew, could have merely been chalked up as something of an urban legend.

The tennis ball left Sam Warburg’s racket, slowly made its way across the net and headed straight for the wheelhouse of 14-time Grand Slam singles champion Pete Sampras.

Of all the images during Sampras’ glorious tennis career, none are more vivid or more frequent than Sampras soaring off the tennis court and blasting an overhead winner past an overmatched opponent.

So as Sampras waited for his chance, the crowd held its breath in anticipation of some impending magic. With a whack of his racket, the ball found its mark — smack dab in the middle of the net.

Perhaps the most automatic shot in the modern era of tennis suddenly was not as routine as it once was. Yes, three and a half years away from the game can even cause one of the sport’s all-time greats to appear human.

Tonight, Sampras will continue his whirlwind tour around the World Team Tennis circuit when he leads the Newport Beach (Calif.) Breakers against the Hartford FoxForce in a 6:45 match at the Blue Fox Run Golf Course in Avon.

Without saying it in as many words, Sampras made it clear at a Wednesday press conference in Rye, N.Y., that this was not a comeback tour. Unlike Martina Hingis who used an outstanding 2005 season with the New York Sportimes to springboard her back into prominence on the WTA tour, Sampras does not have visions of hoisting another Wimbledon or U.S. Open championship trophy.

Sampras is back playing tennis in front of the adoring fans because his restlessness pushed him back into the public eye and on the tennis court. His first year playing World Team Tennis has seen moments of brilliance but also stretches of un-Sampras like play.

“I’m playing OK,” Sampras said Wednesday. “I am not expecting any miracles. I am serving pretty well and doing OK but I miss a little more than I used to. In fact I miss a lot more than I used to when I played. I hope not to get injured, play good tennis and hopefully the fans enjoy the tennis. I am not looking to beat anybody 5-0, I just want to hit the ball well.

“It’s business as usual. I am a little anxious because I don’t know how I am going to play. I just want to see how it goes but it feels good to get the perspective of the crowd who like the fact that I am playing again.”

Sampras’ World Team Tennis career with Newport Beach began with losses to John Paul Fruttero and Warburg, who are a combined 1-3 in their careers in ATP-level matches. His third match against Philadelphia was rained out. Sampras, a winner of seven Wimbledon and five U.S. Open singles titles, picked up his first WTT singles victory with a 5-1 win over Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the New York Sportimes Wednesday night.

Tonight, his opponent in singles figures to be Glenn Weiner of the FoxForce.

“I am trying it,” Sampras said. “I am in the middle of it and it has been fun. Making the commitment to play here was more of an attempt to get some structure in my life. Three or four days a week, I am hitting balls, going to the gym, nothing to go nuts about just something that I can focus on and see how it goes. So far, it has been OK.

“I didn’t know what to expect. There is not a book on retirement at 32, you take kind of a wait and see approach. You take the first year after retirement and you decompress, you enjoy it and do some things that you didn’t get to do — whatever that may be. After three and a half years of being retired, I don’t think bored was the right word but I think it was more of a (need) of a focus and structure in my life and my day. I promised myself that if I had a tennis opportunity, I would potentially play.”

Sampras wrapped up his glorious career by topping long-time rival Andre Agassi to win the 2002 U.S. Open. With a record 14 men’s singles Grand Slam titles, Sampras walked away from the game at the age of 32. He was back in New York a year later for an emotional farewell ceremony at Flushing Meadows.

He had not returned to the East coast until this week. Tonight’s match will be the first for Sampras in Connecticut since a loss to Leander Paes in the third round of the 1998 Pilot Pen.

He is expecting a warm reception from the FoxForce crowd, one similar to the lovefest he enjoyed from fans in Newport Beach, Sacramento, Philadelphia (before the match was suspended early in the first set) and Mamaroneck, N.Y.

“It’s more interaction (than on the ATP tour),” Sampras said. “It’s a fun event, they can watch a little bit of everything. It is not the most serious (event) but it is competitive and I still want to play well and win. I have a lot of pride out there but it is more of a relaxed atmosphere out there.”

Sampras is mixing in an occasional exhibition to keep his tennis game fresh. Next up is a match with former rival Jim Courier in August. A potential doubles exhibition could be coming later in the year.

“I am not looking to play a ton,” Sampras said. “I just want to see how it goes. I just have a few things every couple of months to keep me busy, keep me sharp and keep me in shape. That is basically what I am doing this for.

“I think some players when they retire are still involved in their sport. Tennis players historically have kind of gotten away from it and then come back. You are not going to see me be like (John) McEnroe who is so involved in the commentary and still plays a lot. I am just testing the waters right now.”

The latest test comes tonight in Avon.

Rahul Dravid takes on world billiards champion Pankaj Advani and mutiple Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi for the 2005-06 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in what promises to be one of the closest contests in recent years.

In a meeting of government of India sports observers in Delhi on Friday, these three main contenders for the nation’s highest sporting award were discussed. An observer pointed out that while Dravid may be the public favourite on account of the tremendous passion that cricket arouses, the other two names are backed by solid performances.

In fact, the least well known of the three — Pankaj Advani — may well be the hottest contender as he became the only Indian to win two world billiards titles (in point and time formats) as well as the Asian billiards title in 2005. Then, Mahesh Bhupathi notched up his Grand Slam haul to 10 titles by claiming two mixed doubles crowns in 2005.

The Khel Ratna which was instituted in 1991 has only gone to one cricketer till date. Sachin Tendulkar earned the honour for 1997-98. Geet Sethi was the last billiards player to be given the award (92-93) while Leander Paes in the only tennis player to have got the honour (96-97).

The final selection will be made by the second week of August and the President is to confer the award on August 29 along with a cash prize of five lakh.

Mahesh Bhupathi will tell you that contrary to popular opinion, celebrity representation is not always a case of Jerry Maguire’s “show me the money".

It takes a lot to understand the athletes’ needs and market them properly.

After spending 10 years in the circuit, Mahesh Bhupathi is now combining his business and tennis skills to hunt for India’s future tennis stars.

Tennis academy

Bhupathi has 10 grand slam titles to his credit and he may not have had the best of facilities when he picked up his first tennis racquet, but he is trying to change all that for other kids.

The Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy in Gurgaon’s Palm Greens is the sixth such initiative in the country and the parents don’t mind shelling out a fortune if it means their kids can follow in Mahesh’s footsteps.

“We spend about Rs 6,000-7,000 a month and then there are additional expenses on accessories. If he shows promise, we don’t mind spending more on him,” says a parent.

“Starting academies across the country has been at the back of my mind for a while. May be I could have done it after my retirement, but then I got Gaurav Natekar. A lot of kids are taking to the game, picking up the racquet, but not learning the right way. So I decided to get into it and give them the basics,” says Bhupathi.

Managing careers

This is not Mahesh’s only contribution to Indian sports. Four years back, he started a company called Globosport with the idea of managing the careers of budding sports professionals.

Today his client list includes names like Sania Mirza, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Narain Karthikeyan and Zaheer Khan.

Mahesh has also gone the Amritraj way by venturing into the entertainment business.

Globosport has already signed on stars like Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor and is now looking to veer into film production, as Bollywood brings big bucks.

“We are into organising events, celebrity management. Bollywood is a big part of our business. We are also building infrastructure like squash and tennis courts,” says Bhupathi.

Perhaps Bhupathi’s goodwill on court has also led to a business deal off it.

No wonder then that Martina Hingis will be one of the prime attractions for the Globosport organised Sunfeast Open in September this year.

But for all his business acumen, Bhupathi is a tennis player first. And so more than anything else, he wants to give an Olympic gold one last shot in Beijing. That will involve a partnership of a different kind with old pal, Leander Paes.

Tennis lovers in the Capital have it made. The Asian Hopman Cup, the first of its kind, will be held in the city, in the week starting November 13.

Apart from being crowned Asian champions, the winners of this event will get to take part in the Hopman Cup in Australia. The prestigious tournament, recognised by the International Tennis Federation as their official mixed team competition, will feature an Asian team as participants as early as the next edition which begins in December.

The news may come as a surprise to many, but secretary general of the All India Tennis Association, Anil Khanna reveals that discussions had begun as early as January 2005, at the Australian Open.

“Tennis Australia, the Asian Tennis Federation and Paul McNamee, director of the Hopman Cup Organising Committee were the three parties involved. A formal dialogue finally started at this year’s Australian Open. The All India Tennis Association requested the ITF to let India organise the event,” said Mr Khanna, who is also the President of the Asian Tennis Federation.

“The final decision was taken on July 3, during the Wimbledon championships by the ITF and Tennis Australia. The tournament will be held in India for the next three years.” The venues for the second and third years are yet to be decided.

The format of the event, which saw USA emerge as champions in 2006, consists of three rubbers - men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles.

Asians are rapidly making their mark in the world of tennis, particularly the women, and players from Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Japan, India, Uzbekistan, China and the Philippines have been invited to take part in the tournament.

“Of course, we are hoping that players like Paradorn Srichaphan, Na Li, Ai Sugiyama will be among the ones taking to the court; but we haven’t received any names as yet from the respective federations,” said Khanna.

And for those who think that this will be a chance to blood young Indian talents like Vivek Shokeen and Divij Sharan, such thoughts are firmly brushed aside by Khanna, “We cannot expect to put up a challenge in the Asian Hopman Cup without having experienced players in our team, and for this reason it will probably be players like Leander Paes and Sania Mirza who will be in action.”

The matches will be played at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association on the synthetic courts, and the AITA President is confident that the facilities will be completely satisfactory.

“We have already started planning, though nothing has taken on a concrete shape yet. The satellites will end on September 3; after that there is no tennis for some time, and so we can focus completely on the Asian Hopman Cup. We will put in every possible effort to improve the courts, the other facilities, and whatever else is required to make the event a success,” he said

The national capital will host the first Asian Hopman Cup mixed team tennis championships in November, the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) announced Friday.

The ATF has allotted the six-team $70,000 tournament to the All India Tennis Association (AITA) for three years starting with this year’s edition.

The winners will get an entry into the main draw of the Hyundai Hopman Cup, which is held in Perth in December-January.

On the basis of rankings, top male and female players from India, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Uzbekistan and China have been invited to take part in the tournament. The Philippines will be the first reserve team.

The Asian Hopman Cup is likely to feature some of the best players of the continent like India’s Sania Mirza and Leander Paes, Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, Wang Yeu-Tzuoo of Taipei, Ai Sugiyama of Japan, and Na Li of China.

The winners will receive $20,000 while the runner-up will get $12,000 in prize money.

Named after legendary Australian coach and player Harry Hopman, the Cup was instituted in 1988. Eight teams of one male and one female player each take part in the event.

Seventh seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm appeared off colour as they went down to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro and Serb Nenad Zimonjic in the men’s doubles semifinal of Wimbledon Grand Slam Tennis championship.

It took the sixth seeds just over 90 minutes to sweep the match 6-2, 6-1, 7-5, making short work of the Indo-Czech duo yesterday.

Paes and Damm were defending their half of the court well, registering some good winners, but the Indian struggled to get his serve into any sort of groove in the first set.

In contrast, Santoro and Zimonjic were in sterling form, having dropped just a single set in the tournament and even beating second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in straight sets in the quarters.

Zimonjic served a couple of aces in the opening game which set the tone for the rest of the match.

They also ran away with second set, with Damm and Paes unable to pose much resistance.

In the third set, Paes-Damm tried but in vain to find some of the will that enabled them to put out 4th seeds Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett in a four-hour quarter-final match.

They took the lead, but Damm was unable to serve out the set. Santoro and Zimonjic drew level 5-5. Another break of Paes service and Zimonjic was able to close proceedings in the next game.

In juniors’ section, Rupesh Roy and Hsin Han Lee of Chinese Taipei pulled off a brave 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (7/4) 6-4 win in the boy’s doubles quarterfinal.

They beat Luka Belic and Antonio Veic of Croatia to enter the semifinals where they will meet second seeds Martin Klizan and Andrei Martin of Slovakia.

Leander Paes and Martin Damm on Wednesday moved into the semifinal of the Wimbledon men’s doubles competition when they defeated Australian Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyet of Zimbabwe in a thrilling five-setter here.

Seventh seeded Paes and Damm came from behind to win the match 7-6 (10/8) 6-7 (5/7) 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 against the fourth seeded combination.

In the Boys’ singles, India’s Sanam K Singh, seeded eight, went down to 12th seed Artur Chernov of Russia 6-2 6-3 in the third round.

The fourth seeded pair of Leander Paes and Samantha Stosur on Thursday breezed past the pair of Sebastian Prieto and Flavia Pennetta to move into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.

Paes and Stosur won 6-3, 6-2 in just as hour. They now face a tougher quarterfinal challenge in Bob Bryan and Venus Williams.

Sania Mirza was not quite so lucky though, as she and partner Pavel Vizner went down in the third round to fifth seed Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva 3-6, 7-5, 2-6.

The pair did put up a bit of a fight though stretching the match to a third set. The loss brought Sania’s Wimbledon campaign to an end.

Paes is now the only Indian in competition among the seniors.

While Justin Henin-Hardenne and Amelie Mauresmo clinched their places in the ladies’ singles final, the woman whose crown they are aiming to take completed her very own personal victory by making it to the last four of the mixed doubles for the first time.

Venus Williams, together with fellow American partner Bob Bryan, defeated the fourth seeds Leander Paes and Samantha Stosur 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in 66 minutes.

Seeing as both partnerships were competing in their second match of the day, you could forgive them if they looked a little tired. Instead, the players, especially Williams, delighted the No.2 Court crowd with a highly-competitive, fired-up and focused display.

With only a few points separating the players at the end of the first set, a tie-break was needed to decide the score. At this point it was the unseeded American duo appeared the hungrier for victory, prevailing 7-3 in the tie-break after Bryan continued his excellent serving and Williams sent a couple of unstoppable returns at the feet of Indian doubles specialist Leander Paes.

Sensing victory was near, Williams and Bryan then upped their game to another level. Williams unusually decided to change tactics and stay at the baseline in a few of the rallies, frequently passing her bewildered rivals with top class shots into the tramlines.

With Bryan’s expertise at the net, the duo are forming a formidable and clever partnership that puts them in with a good chance of lifting the mixed doubles trophy on Sunday. They outwitted their opponents at the net in the fourth game to achieve a crucial break of serve to give them the advantage in the set. The number two seeds could not find a way back into the game, eventually bowing out 6-3.

Williams and Bryan will play the second seeds Max Miryni and Jie Zheng in the quarter-finals.