Pete Sampras’ Hopes Ruined in Champions Tour Comeback

Written by: Global Chick on 28th October 2011

Pete Sampras’ Hopes Ruined in Champions Tour Comeback

US tennis star Pete Sampras returns the ball to former world number one Marat Safin of Russia during an exhibition match to inaugurate the new Tennis China Open center court in Beijing, China, 30 September 2011. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL |

Former world number one Pete Sampras suffered a setback yesterday when he was defeated by Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui at the ATP Champions Tour event in Chengdu, China.

El Aynaoui came through 6-4 7-6 (2) in yesterday’s match against Sampras. The Moroccan broke Sampras twice in the first set but Sampras broke back but El Aynaoui was to strong and captured the first set. The second set tiebreaker was dominated by El Aynaoui.

The former ATP Tour bad boy Marat Safin played on the Champions Tour for the first time this week. The Russian defeated South African Wayne Ferreira 6-2 6-3. Ferreira said, “Marat was very difficult to play. He still serves very hard and gets a lot of first serves in. He steps in and hit the ball very flat and very hard.”

Safin commented after his first seniors match, “I’m a junior, senior. I’m getting older. I know a few guys that are older than me that are still playing on the ATP Tour. I don’t know what they are doing but I decided to move with my group of people to the real tennis world. I’m really comfortable here.”

The emotional Russian player told reporters that he has broken “precisely 1055 racquets during his career and how he only brought two racquets to China. He also told the media he is running for the Federal Parliament in Moscow. He thinks he is intelligent, wants a challenge and think he has some good ideas.

Australian Mark Philippoussis and Carlos Moya had a tough first round battle yesterday. Philippoussis won their last meeting in Bogota earlier in the year but this time around it was Moya who won in straight sets 7-5 6-2. The Aussie said, “Carlos played the bigger points better than me tonight, it’s as simple as that. I never lead once in the match.”

The Spaniard was very happy with his win today, “He’s a great player with a huge serve. I was very focused on my return. First time, first match here, it’s a great way to start the tournament, beating Mark who is No.1 in the rankings right now.”

Philippoussis is currently the number one player on the Champions Tour but Carlos Moya is only a few wins away from taking over as the number one.

Swede Thomas Enqvist downed the very popular Thai player Paradorn Scrihaphan 6-3 6-3. Safin and El Aynaoui are the top players in Group A and in Group B Enqvist and Moya are in the lead.

The format is round robin with the winners in each group going through to the finals.

Friday’s Schedule is:

3.30pm start

Moya vs.Srichaphan

Enqvist vs Phlippoussis

Moya/Shen vs. Philippoussis/Zeng

Sampras vs. Ferreira

Safin vs. El Aynaoui

Topics: Pete Sampras, Younes El Aynaoui