Agassi hot on Sampras' trail
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The rivalry of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi for the world No 1 position comes to a head over the next 10 days in the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Sampras will be looking for his third consecutive Lipton title, but his current 79-week stint as the leading player has been under pressure with Agassi playing some of the best tennis of his career.
Sampras beat Agassi in the Newsweek Champions Cup final in Indian Wells, California, last Monday to maintain his position, but their recent encounters have left the Wimbledon champion with a healthy respect for his American compatriot.
"Andre, in my mind, is the one guy that I feel, even if I play well, he can still beat me," said Sampras, who lost the Australian Open final to Agassi in January in their other compelling meeting of 1995.
Sampras, who holds an 8-6 match record against Agassi, will retain his status by reaching the semi-finals, according to ATP officials. If Sampras stumbles before the final four, Agassi can overtake his former Davis Cup team-mate.
Sampras's task is all the more difficult as he is clearly in the tougher half of the draw. He faces potential quarter-final challenges from the former No 1, Jim Courier, the seventh seed, or the 10th-seeded Ukrainian, Andrei Medvedev.
Others who could stop him include Michael Chang, the third seed, the fifth-seeded German, Michael Stich, and another former No 1, Stefan Edberg.
Even though Agassi can walk away from the tournament as the top-ranked player in the world, the US and Australian Open champion is looking further down the road. "I want to be number one at the end of the year," said Agassi, whose No 2 ranking is a career best.
"I don't want to just slide into number one. I want to play the best tennis over the course of this year." So far he has, with defeats extremely rare since his stirring US Open victory last September.
Agassi's path to another showdown with Sampras appears less demanding with his toughest potential quarter-final threats coming from Wayne Ferreira, the eighth seed from South Africa or the ninth-seeded American, Todd Martin.
Although tournament officials say it is "highly unlikely" that Steffi Graf can regain her No 1 ranking from Arantxa Sanchez Vicario at Key Biscayne, the German player can certainly narrow the gap.
Graf, the defending champion and three-times winner of the women's title, has Natasha Zvereva, of Belarus, the Czech Jana Novotna, and another German, Anke Huber, in her half of the draw.
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