Agassi, Sampras’ last stand against young guns

Agassi, Sampras’ last stand against young guns
Agence France Presse

MELBOURNE, JANUARY 12: With Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi under siege from the game’s young guns, this year’s Australian Open has the look of a last stand about it.

Both decorated Americans, for so long the dominant stars of the men’s game, figure among the players to beat on the hot-plate hardcourts of Melbourne Park, where the action gets underway on Monday.

But there is a growing belief that age is catching up with them and that a changing of the guard is underway in the men’s game.

Agassi, at 30 the oldest of the current top-ten ranked players, is the fifth player in history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments along with Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Perry and Don Budge.

Sampras, 29, last year also created history. He supplanted Emerson to become the game’s all-time leader with 13 Grand Slam singles titles with his seventh Wimbledon crown last July.

Friday’s draw has Agassi and Sampras scheduled to collide in a quarter-final. They are both in the bottom half of the draw, headed by second seed Marat Safin, the giant Russian who blasted Sampras off court in the final of last year’s US Open.

Agassi and Sampras can stand tall in any era, but they face a torrid time holding their position against the faster young stars.

Charismatic Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten is at forefront. He finished last year as the World’s number one thanks to a memorable victory over Agassi in the Masters Cup final in Lisbon in November.

Kuerten will be the first South American top seed in a Grand Slam since Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas at the Australian Open in 1981. He has to contend with a poor record in Melbourne he’s lost more matches than he has won (3-4).

Throw in the moody Russian Safin, consistent Swede Magnus Norman and ferociously-competitive Australian Lleyton Hewitt and the established order may have their work cut out negotiating the seven matches to win the year’s first Major.

While not categorised as a young colt, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov is an outstanding chance of adding to his 1999 triumph over Thomas Enqvist, having finished runner-up to Agassi last year.

Kafelnikov, who has lost only four times in 26 matches in Melbourne, has been in magnificent leadup form and doesn’t hold back on his chances.

‘‘I feel really, really confident. No matter who I’m playing, when I’m playing, how I’m playing, I still believe I can beat anybody,’’ 26-year-old Kafelnikov said.Kafelnikov was delighted to learn that he has been kept away from Agassi and Sampras and will have Kuerten, Norman and Hewitt in his top half of the draw.Agassi has also been in impressive form. At the leadup Kooyong Classic he registered wins over Nicolas Kiefer and Nicolas Escude. ‘‘I’m very critical on myself about how I’m hitting the ball specifically. I feel good and strong and physically fit, but I think this year a couple of early matches will be more important to me than they were last year,’’ Agassi said.

Sampras hasn’t had the results by Agassi’s standards in the Open build up, but is reasonably satsified with his form just days out from the Open.

‘‘By playing more games you get into a certain rhythm and when you come down here you have to adjust your shots a little bit,’’ he said. ‘‘When you win matches you build confidence and I’ll work on a few things this weekend and get ready.’’Hewitt has a gruelling start to his campaign. He was pitted against hardy Swede Jonas Bjorkman and if he progresses there’s the probability that he will face the most dangerous unseeded floater in the men’s draw, German Tommy Haas.