Teenage-scare for Sampras

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 25: Xavier Malisse, 17, nearly turned his professional debut into one of tennis' all-time upsets, pushing Pete Sampras, th...

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 25: Xavier Malisse, 17, nearly turned his professional debut into one of tennis’ all-time upsets, pushing Pete Sampras, the world’s No 1-ranked player, to three sets before Sampras prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 last night in the Advanta Championships.

Malisse, from Belgium, was ranked 851st on the ATP Tour coming into his first tour match. He made the main draw as a wild card after qualifying last weekend. Malisse broke Sampras’ serve in the first game, then seized the first set by taking 12 of 13 points in the final three games.

Malisse fought off break points in the third and fifth games of the third set to hold serve, taking a 5-4 lead. Malisse won a long rally to make it 30-all, then twice took Sampras to deuce. Sampras held on to make it 5-5. Sampras finally broke Malisse’s serve at love in the 11th game.

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Sampras, 26, was returning to the site of his first Tour victory in 1990. Malisse’s one hour, 36-minute debut impressed him.

Sampras said: " He came up with some unbelievable shotsthat really surprised me. He’s going to be around you’ll see a lot of him.”

Korda stretched

LONDON: Top seed and Australian Open champion Petr Korda survived a first-set crisis, threw away two match points in the second and finally overpowered David Prinosil 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-2), 6-4 today in his opening match of the ATP Guardian Direct Open tennis tournament.

The Czech left-hander was 3-0, 30-0 down to the German before hitting back to take the opening set on a tie-break. He then had leads of 5-3 and 6-5 with two match points against the qualifier, who refused to wilt and charged back to tie the match.

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Korda produced the big shots in the final set to move into the last 16.Karol Kucera, who lost to Korda in the Australian Open semifinal, needed to save a match point on his way to a 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory over Guillaume Raoux. The Slovak was 6-5 down in the second set tie-break. But a big serve got him out of the trouble and he went on to win in two hours and 25minutes.

Williams cruises

OKLAHOMA CITY: Serena Williams needed just 44 minutes to polish off Katrina Adams 6-1, 6-2 in a first-round match yesterday in the IGA tennis classic.

The fifth-seeded Williams had two service breaks in each set in posting the lopsided win.

The only other seeded singles player in action yesterday was No 6 Amy Frazier, and she had a tough time with Kerri-Anne Guse of Australia. Frazier posted a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 win.