Sampras will miss Queen's to raise game
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Your support makes all the difference.Desperate to lift his game and his spirits, Pete Sampras has decided to forego the wild card reserved for him at the Stella Artois Championships at Queen's Club, London, next week and will instead prepare for Wimbledon at the Gerry Weber Open on the grass courts in Halle, Germany.
The 30-year-old Californian has gone 28 tournaments without a title since winning his seventh Wimbledon championship in 2000. Although Sampras, the 12th seed, was not expected to end his losing sequence at the French Open, a depressing first-round defeat to Italy's Andrea Gaudenzi here last week further dented his confidence.
It will be only the second time in 14 years that Sampras has missed the Stella. The previous occasion, in 1996, he was beaten in the Wimbledon quarter-finals by Richard Krajicek, of the Netherlands, who went on to win the title.
This is the sixth year in a row that Sampras has asked for a Queen's wild card, dependent on progress at the French Open, and the first he has discarded. Ian Wight, the tournament director, said: "I suspect that he feels he needs a couple of wins under his belt. I guess he feels those are more likely at Halle."
Sampras's decision may indeed be related to the comparative strength of the draw: Tommy Haas, Thomas Johansson and Nicolas Kiefer are the leading players at Halle; Lleyton Hewitt, Tim Henman, Marat Safin, Sebastien Grosjean, Guillermo Canas, Thomas Enqvist, Mark Philippoussis, Greg Rusedski, Sjeng Schalken, James Blake and Todd Martin will be at Queen's.
But there could be another factor: Halle has a retractable roof on the centre court and tented practice courts.
Play was suspended at the French Open yesterday with Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain, leading Andre Agassi, 6-3, 1-0, in the men's quarter-finals. Rain interrupted the match for five hours with Ferrero leading 5-2 in the opening set. The match resumed for 13 minutes, at which point the referee, Stefan Fransson, agreed with Agassi that play could not continue in the rain and wind.
Andrei Pavel, whose quarter-final against Alex Corretja was suspended on Tuesday with the Spaniard leading, 7-6, 7-5, 4-5, yesterday drove to Germany, where his, wife, Simone, was due to give birth. The Romanian is due back on centre court this morning and his match will be followed by the two other outstanding quarter-finals and the women's semis.
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