Sampras Welcomes Safin - 'One Of The Best Players Of My Generation'
Pete Sampras has welcomed the arrival of Marat Safin onto the ATP Champions Tour in Chengdu, China and described the Russian as 'up there with the all-time best players of my generation'.
Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and will try to go one better than last year when he finished as runner-up in Chengdu, was delighted to be reunited with the man-mountain from Moscow, and hopes to get the better of him when they face off on Saturday.
"I’m definitely looking forward to taking him on again," said Sampras. "We have a little bit of a history. We’ve played a few times in the past and he got his first win against me at the US Open in 2000 to win his first Slam. He drubbed me pretty good there. He’s a character and a good guy and in terms of talent he’s up there with the all-time best players of my generation."
Sampras and Safin faced each other seven times in their careers, with the then 20-year-old Safin leading 4-3 and winning an extraordinary US Open final in 2000, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
For Sampras, returning to Chengdu brings back some happy memories.
“I really enjoyed my time here last year," said Sampras. "The stadium is fantastic, the hotel is beautiful and the combination of everything makes for a really nice stay so I’m happy to be back and hopefully I’ll play some decent tennis."
He has been drawn into a round-robin group alongside Safin, Younes El Aynaoui and Wayne Ferreira. Safin makes his Tour debut against Ferreira on Thursday, with Sampras taking on El Aynaoui. They will all play each other with the top player in the group going through to the final on Sunday.
In Group B, the top two players in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings will face off - No.1 Mark Philippoussis and No.2 Carlos Moya. They are joined by No.3 Thomas Enqvist, and Paradorn Srichaphan.
Moya is determined to prevail.
“Of course I would like to finish the year at Number One," said Moya. "I am happy to be winning events this year but there are many good players in every tournament so it will be tough to finish at Number One. At the moment I am just behind Philippoussis so he will definitely make it tough for me because he plays so well.”
Moya and Philippoussis will clash tomorrow, with Enqvist up against Srichaphan.
Matches are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) to decide the winner. After all round-robin matches are complete, the top two players in each group will meet in Sunday's final.
After Chengdu, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to Santiago for the city’s first ever ATP Champions Tour event in Chile, The Royal Guard Champions (November 10-13) and after that the Tour will arrive in London for the year-end AEGON Masters Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall (Nov 30 - Dec 4).
To view the order of play and the round-robin groups in Chengdu, go to Results.