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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Wednesday, July 25 |
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| Sampras defeats defending champ Associated Press | |||
LOS ANGELES -- Pete Sampras pulled out a tough victory over defending champion Michael Chang, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2), in second-round action Wednesday night at the Mercedes-Benz Cup.
Sampras, seeded fourth, was stretched to two tiebreakers by the tenacious Chang. The seven-time Wimbledon champion took nearly two hours to win.
Sampras was up 5-2 and then 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker. Chang charged back to make it 6-all before Sampras won the last two points.
The two traded service breaks in the second set en route to another tiebreaker.
"He's a great competitor," Sampras said. "It's always tight when I play Michael. It doesn't matter what he's ranked, what I'm ranked."
Sampras has beaten Chang 12-8 in head-to-head competition.
In the first round, top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten eliminated Michael Llodra 7-6 (4), 6-3 in straight sets in his first action at the Mercedes-Benz Cup.
Kuerten, ranked second in the world, needed 73 minutes to beat his 21-year-old French opponent. The Brazilian recorded the match's only service break in the sixth game of the second set.
In other first-round matches at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, Taylor Dent, ranked 114th in the world, upset sixth-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain 6-3, 6-4, and Max Mirnyi of Belarus eliminated Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-6 (3).
In a second-round match, seventh-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden beat Cyril Saulnier of France 6-4, 7-6 (4).
The 24-year-old Kuerten, coming off a victory in a tournament at Stuttgart, Germany, is playing in Los Angeles for the first time. The French Open champion has won 13 straight matches, and his 41-6 record this year is the best in the world.
Dent, the 20-year-old son of former pro Phil Dent, recorded 16 aces to Moya's one in the 63-minute match. Several of Dent's serves topped 130 mph.
Moya, the 1998 French Open champion, captured a tournament in Croatia on Sunday and is 13th in the Champions Points Race. He flew from Croatia to his home in Madrid before traveling to London and then Los Angeles.
"His slowest serve was 125 mph, and that puts a lot of pressure on you," Moya said. "Even if I was here a week earlier, I probably would have lost this match today."
Dent said the win ranks with the best in his career.
"I beat Magnus Norman when he was fourth in the world, and I beat Pete Sampras earlier in practice," Dent said. "Moya wasn't on his game 100 percent." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |
ALSO SEE Wednesday's results Sampras struggles, but wins first match since Wimbledon defeat | |
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