Sampras in game plea

"Men's tennis is devoid of colour, lacks characters, needs to generate a hatred between four or five individuals and is crying out for a Dennis Rodman-style character." The aforementioned comments appear McEnroesque, aggressive, forthright and abrasive and one would certainly not attribute anything as contentious to Pete Sampras, the quietly spoken world number one. One would have erred.

Yesterday at Wimbledon in an all embracing discussion of the men's game during the course of an after match interview, Sampras specifically referred to a decline in popularity in the men's game. His thoughts came in answer to a question which inquired whether he believed more could be done to promote men's tennis.

The NBA (US National Basketball Association) was mooted as the perfect role model. Sampras opined: "All the sports in the States are really successful. Look at golf they do a great job of marketing. Nike has really marketed myself and Andre (Agassi) well over the years but I think the tour can do a better job marketing the game in the States.

"You still look at the game, the US Open, the game is doing well. It's not at the level of the NBA but it's up to the tour to change that. You definitely need Americans playing well to have this game successful in the States."

It was then ventured that wouldn't the American people have just as much interest in international rivalry as they had when Borg was playing McEnroe and Connors. It wasn't simply nationalistic but a personality thing.

Sampras admitted: "When the game was successful you had four of the guys in the top five playing themselves in the semis and finals of all the slams. They were all different personalities and they hated each other.

"So it's great theatre. You know it's sad but true, but that's what the game probably needs. It needs a little bit of a Dennis Rodman type," the colourful Chicago Bulls star noted for his outrageous clothes, hairstyles and brushes with authority.

But was hatred too strong a word, not according to Sampras. "Yes, a hatred or whatever you want to call it. So that's where we are at. You need a rivalry. You need something so that people not following the game might follow it. With Andre, and out rivalry a couple of years ago, tennis in the States was great but it now seems to have fizzled out.

"For me, I'm obviously worrying about my tennis. I want to be a little more popular but there is only so much that I can do." Four times a champion at Wimbledon in the last five years, Sampras continued his flawless progress with an easy 6-3, 64, 6-4 victory over French qualifier Sebastien Grosjean and earning a clash with big-serving Australian Mark Philippoussis.

The only man to have dethroned the American, Holland's Richard Krajecik who beat Sampras in the quarter-final en route to victory in 1996, is acknowledged as a serious contender by the champion, along with Goran Ivanisevic and Philippoussis. "They can serve big and that's a threat. I play Philippoussis and he's got one of the biggest serves on tour.

"A couple of swings on return and you can lose a set, 6-4. So anyone that can serve big, Krajecik, Goran or Philippoussis, when they get hot, then it is tough to beat them."

Philippoussis, the six foot, four inch Australian nicknamed `Scud' because of his thundering serve, recovered from losing the first set against fellow Antipodean Jason Stoltenberg to triumph in four. Petr Korda, achilles injury permitting, faces England's Tim Henman in the second quarter-final.

The bottom half of the draw sees Dutchman Jan Siemerink, a four-set winner over Magnus Larsson, pitted against Ivanisevic who edged past Todd Martin, the American twice a semi-finalist at the All England club. Krajecik continued his quiet progress with an impressive straight sets victory over South African Wayne Ferreira but at a cost.

The former champion slipped at the end of the second set, damaging his knee and despite continuing to win, admitted to being concerned. "Well I don't know exactly what the problem is, I over-stretched the leg. I slipped and then my knee bent the other way.

"I just felt a sharp pain basically on the scar from my operation (meniscus), it's not a tendon, something maybe inside the knee. Sometimes I got an unbelievably sharp pain. It's not comfortable. I've iced it and I am going to have treatment later to try and reduce the fluid in the knee."

Krajecik was in the process of imperiously sweeping aside Ferreira through a combination of booming serves and wickedly struck groundstrokes on return until the injury intervened. "I couldn't serve as well. I was basically doing it (serving) on one leg. Mentally I was a little bit tentative from then on."