Claycourt nightmares return to haunt Sampras

HAMBURG, MAY 18. If it's May it must be clay, which usually means defeat and a barrage of questions to poor Pete Sampras as to why the American just can't produce the goods on the surface.

Wednesday was no different as the top-seeded American saw his claycourt nightmares return to haunt him once again, bowing out in straight sets to unseeded Frenchman Arnaud Di Pasquale in the second round of the Hamburg Masters series event.

Di Pasquale managed a break in each set to win 6-4, 6- 4 in 78 minutes as he revelled in just the kind of heavy conditions which Sampras loathes.

The Frenchman will now face Romania's Andrei Pavel, who won 6-4, 6-4 against Spanish 15th-seed Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Sampras was by no means the only seed to struggle on the red clay as 10th-seeded Australian youngster Lleyton Hewitt went down in three sets to last year's finalist, Argentinean Mariano Zabaleta, who advanced 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Hewitt was looking to improve on his three titles this year and his fourth place in the ATP champions' race after dumping Davis Cup teammate Mark Philippoussis in his opener but sank without trace after going 0-5 down in the decider.

Tim Henman and current ATP champions' race leader Magnus Norman both avoided the seeds' graveyard, however, on a day when wet weather held up proceedings.

British eighth-seed Henman battled back from a set down to oust unseeded Frenchman Jerome Golmard 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 and book a place in the last 16 where he will face Zabaleta.

Norman, fresh from his win in Rome at the weekend, struggled initially before overcoming German wildcard Rainer Schuttler 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

The 25-year-old Henman, who like Sampras still has to overcome his antipathy to claycourt tennis ahead of the French Open in two weeks, benefited from having the centre court's sliding canopy roof brought into action when heavy rain fell after opening set, in which he said his tennis was ``abysmal.''

The roof may have suited Henman - ``I was delighted they closed the roof. It broke up the match and gave me the chance to talk things through'' with coach David Felgate - but, metaphorically, it fell in on Sampras, whose preparations for the French Open, the only Grand Slam he has yet to win, now lie in ruins.

``I felt I was hitting the ball fine,'' said 28-year- old Sampras afterwards. ``But that's clay.'' Di Pasquale, ranked 53 in the champions race, followed a simple but effective recipe - attack. ``I wanted to try to put him under pressure and force him into making mistakes,'' he explained.

Sampras surrendered his serve in the seventh game of the opening set, then found himself broken to love as Di Pasquale, finding the lines with a welter of brilliant returns, moved 4-3 ahead in the second set to close the door on the former world No. 1, who was returning from a thigh muscle injury.

The results: Mariano Zabaleta bt Lleyton Hewitt 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; Magnus Norman bt Rainer Schuttler 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Earlier results: Arnaud Di Pasquale bt Pete Sampras 6-4, 6-4; Andrei Pavel bt Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 6-4; Tim Henman bt Jerome Golmard 2-6, 6-4, 6-1; Marcelo Rios bt Michael Kohlmann 6- 1, 6-0.

- AFP

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