Confidence deserts defeated Sampras

TENNIS: The former world number one Pete Sampras made the worst possible start to the New Year yesterday when he crashed out of the Australian men's hardcourt tennis championship in Adelaide.

Sampras, who had been looking for a good start in preparation for the Australian Open which gets underway on January 14th, was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his first round match by fellow American Todd Martin.

"It wasn't the start I was looking for," a disappointed Sampras said afterwards.

"It's not a major setback. I have just got to start over, get back to the drawing board and hopefully gain some confidence next week."

The 30-year-old Sampras, who has won a record 13 Grand Slam tournaments, failed to win a tournament last year and dropped out of the world's top five for the first time since 1991.

Sampras, who will travel to Melbourne today to contest next week's Colonial Classic invitation tournament, conceded he was lacking confidence.

"It would have been nice to have played really well here and get into the final and possibly win it and get that confidence," he said.

"That's what I was looking for but it didn't happen, so I have just got to start over again and hopefully play some good tennis next week and hopefully peak at Australia (in the Australian Open). It's not the start that I wanted but this is where I'm at."

Martin said it was obvious Sampras' confidence has crumbled. "Since he's not winning as many matches, and not playing as many matches because he's not winning, his confidence has waned," Martin said.

"And so he is not hitting certain shots with the same amount of authority, he's not taking some of the same chances that he took in years past."

Sampras' seventh Wimbledon title in 2000 allowed him to join Bjorn Borg as the only players to win at least one Grand Slam title for eight consecutive years. But yesterday's defeat makes it look increasingly unlikely that he will add to his haul of 63 titles.

Top seed Tim Henman advanced to the last eight when his Danish opponent Kenneth Carlsen retired with a shoulder injury after losing the first set.

Henman was leading 7-6 (7-2) at the time of Carlsen's withdrawal and he will now play Greg Rusedski in an all-British quarter-final tomorrow.

Sixth-seeded Rusedski set up the meeting with Henman by ousting Australian wild card Scott Draper 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.

Henman said of his victory: "In a way it's a shame that the match did not last the distance because the first set was very close and it would have been good to get more matchplay under my belt."

Australia's Mark Philippoussis, forced out for six months last year because of knee surgery, said he had learnt the error of his ways after a clinical first round victory over France's Julien Boutter.

"I have done a lot of things that I felt were wrong in the past, or I haven't given myself enough chances to do what I felt I should be doing," the 25-year-old three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist said after a 6-3, 6-4 win.

"I have had way too much fun on and off the court - I wasn't prepared to make tennis my whole life and if you want to be the best, tennis has got to be everything to you - and it wasn't to me.

First round: P-H Mathieu (Fra) bt Andrew Ilie (Aus) 6-3, 6-1; M Philippoussis (Aus) bt J Boutter (Fra) 6-3, 6-4; (4) H Arazi (Mar) bt M Kratochvil (Swi) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-3); T Martin (USA) bt (2) P Sampras (USA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; A Martin (Esp) bt J Ignacio Chela (Arg) 6-2, 7-5.