Tennis: Big guns dust off for the French Open

TENNIS

WOUNDED HEROES are back in the fray at the Italian Open here, desperate to rebuild their confidence on clay courts ahead of the season's second Grand Slam championship, the French Open, which starts in Paris a week next Monday.

Pete Sampras, who has seen Carlos Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in turn take his place at world No 1 during periods of inactivity due to exhaustion and a back injury, is "champing at the bit", and Andre Agassi, last seen playing pat-ball with Prince Albert before crying off the Monte Carlo Open citing a damaged shoulder, declared himself "fit and ready" after playing, and winning, his first match for a month yesterday, against the Frenchman Jerome Golmard, 6-3, 6-4.

Alex Corretja, the Spaniard whose triumph at the ATP Tour Championship in Hanover last November was followed by a series of defeats this year, returned from a vacation spent skiing and chopping trees in the Pyrenees to win his first-round match against the erratic Italian Diego Nargiso, 6-1, 7-6.

Kafelnikov, the reigning No 1 despite six consecutive opening-round defeats, managed to break the sequence with a 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 win against the American Chris Woodruff. It was the Russian's first success since advancing to the quarter-finals of the Guardian Direct Cup in February. Relieved to have won a match, Kafelnikov was anxious to clarify a statement he made after losing 6-1, 6-2 to Ivan Ljubic in Monte Carlo last month, to the effect that he was not worried about losing matches at tournaments while preparing for a Grand Slam event. "I meant at that particular stage that I wasn't winning any matches," he said, "and I was feeling very disappointed, and I knew I wasn't in my best shape, and I was thinking it was not a big deal if I lose. I do care about every tournament in which I participate."

Sadly, on a day of revival, Todd Martin, the No 11 seed, had to withdraw from the tournament because of a shoulder injury. Martin helped Jim Courier carry the United States to victory against Britain in the first round of the Davis Cup at Easter, after Sampras and Agassi declined to play for their country.

Sampras hopes that decision will be forgiven and forgotten. "Not having played much over the last three or four months has given me time to step back and evaluate my career," he said. "The Grand Slams is something I always talk about, and I want to possibly play more Davis Cup in future.

"I've always said once the day came when my ranking was not that important, then I could see myself playing more Davis Cup. Now that I've achieved what I want to achieve from a ranking standpoint, and I've seen what happened in England, and just hearing that the atmosphere was phenomenal, those are the sort of situations that I see myself in. Maybe in some ways I regret not playing.

"I've spoken to Tim [Henman], and Jim [Courier], and Todd [Martin], and Gully [Tom Gullikson, the American captain], and they told me the atmosphere was worthy of a final. Being on the outside looking in, and seeing what it meant, I see myself playing possibly next year. I don't feel comfortable playing this year because of the situation of the guys who have committed themselves, but I see myself definitely playing more in future."

The winner of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, five of them at Wimbledon, Sampras was asked if he had missed playing tennis. "Absolutely," he said. "I'm very eager to play this week and the next three or four months. I'm hungry. I'm champing at the bit. One thing I'm lacking right now is matches, so I feel a little bit vulnerable out there, but if things don't go well here I've got Dusseldorf [for the World Team Cup] next week, where I'm guaranteed good matches. I feel fresh. I feel like my mind's clear, I know what I want to do, and I'm ready to play."

Sampras, who plays the Czech Bohdan Ulihrach today, won the Italian title in 1994. Agassi, the runner-up in 1989, was asked if he remembered missing a match point against the Argentinian Alberto Mancini in the 1989 final. "I hit a kick serve to the ad court when I should have hit a slice serve wide, and I put a forehand in the net after an eight-shot rally. But I've forgotten about it."