Wimbledon `97: Supreme Sampras puts Woodbridge out to grass

There was a small historic moment on the Centre Court yesterday. Pete Sampras's serve was broken by Australia's Todd Woodbridge, a feat last performed by Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom in the first round, many rain delays ago.

Life has changed dramatically in SW19 since Tillstrom experienced that ray of hope in the fourth game. Two British men have appeared and disappeared in the quarter-finals, Boris Becker has taken his farewell bows, Martina Hingis has become the youngest finalist since Lottie Dod, and Sampras has enjoyed a sequence of 97 games without being broken.

Woodbridge brought Sampras's run to a close as a gesture of defiance before the American marked Independence Day by securing a place in Sunday's final, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6, after an hour and 45 minutes.

The Australian's break came immediately after he had lost his own serve to trail 1-2 in the third set. His reward was to force a tie-break, which Sampras won, 7-3, with the flourish of a service winner off a second serve.

For most of the match, Woodbridge appeared to be lacking something on his backhand side. It transpired to be the forehand of his doubles-partner, Mark Woodforde, who was watching from the stands. Together, they form the sport's most successful duo, but Woodbridge was able to make little impression on the world No 1 as a solo act.

Were one needed, yesterday's match would have served as a timely reminder of Sampras's evolution as a Wimbledon champion, a three-times winner about to contest his fourth final in five years.

Sampras made his debut on the lawns of the All England Club in 1989. His compatriot, Michael Chang, had just become the youngest male to win a Grand Slam singles title, aged 17 years and three months, at the French Open.

Although roughly the same age as Chang, Sampras appeared less mature at the time. Although nobody doubted that had the attacking style to succeed on grass courts, he lacked confidence in his service returns on the surface.

His first match was against Woodbridge, a year older, the Australian taking advantage of Sampras's uncertainty, winning, 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-3.

They met at Wimbledon a second time in 1992. Sampras, a winner of the United States Open title two years earlier, had raised the level of his grass-court game sufficiently to overcome Woodbridge in four sets in the second game, en route to his first appearance in the semi-finals.

Since then, Sampras's only Wimbledon defeat has been against Richard Krajicek in the quarter-finals last year, the Dutchman advancing to win the title.

Well though Woodbridge had played to reach the last eight, particularly in denying his compatriot Pat Rafter in the fourth round, he was comprensively outplayed by Sampras on this occasion.

It was not a case of Woodbridge being unable to put the American's serve under pressure until the closing stages, but one of Sampras having the skill confidence to swat away all but one of the the break points almost at will.

Leading 3-1 in the opening set, Sampras suddenly found himself at 0-40 before serving his way out of difficulty with such ease that his opponent must have wondered how he would possibly find a way into the match.

Another opportunity came at 4-2, Sampras saving it with a service winner and then holding to take the set after 30 minutes, conscious, perhaps, that the dark clouds were gathering to make another attack on the tournament.

Sure enough, rain interrupted play for for an hour after Sampras won the opening game of the second set. His coach, Paul Annacone, was slightly late returning to the players' guest box for the resumption, but he was able to pause at the entrance to the stand and admire Sampras's expertise in breaking Woodbridge from 0-40.

Sampras required only one more opening to crack the Australian's serve again with consecutive backhand passes to extend his lead to 5-1, saving one break point himself with a backhand volley before clinching the set afrer only 24 minutes.

While the crowd admired the apparent ease of the American's serve-volley style thoughout the match, they were most impressed when he slipped early in a rally at the start of the third set and leapt up to win a closely- contested point.

"Today I played one of the greatest players who was playing great." Woodbridge said afterwards. "The way he serves a second ball is what sets him apart from other players. He places it on a dime."