Defending champion Pete Sampras said he was lucky still to be in the hunt after shrugging off a staggering mid-match lapse to squeak into the third round of the men's singles at Wimbledon on Wednesday with a 6-3 6-2 6-7 (5/7) 4-6 6-3 win over battling British wildcard Barry Cowan. Seven-time titlist and top seed Sampras, who came through in 2hr 52min of nailbiting action after closing out the contest with his 29th ace, now meets Armenia's 124th-ranked Sargis Sargsian, who ousted spaniard Tommy Robredo in four sets.
Sampras, bidding to become the only man ever to win the same Grand Slam tournament eight times, went into the encounter with the rank outsider stuck at 265 in the world having won 64 out of his past 65 matches at Wimbledon. But rarely has the American looked as loose on a grass court as in the third and fourth sets when Cowan began to look as if he really did believe in mission impossible, banging down aces almost at will and volleying with the imperiousness normally associated with the colossus on the other side of the net.
“I'm a little bit relieved I got through it. I think that's as close as it's got in the first couple of rounds,” said Sampras, who admitted that Cowan outplayed him for the best part of two sets - though he was always sure he would survive. Sampras, winner of an all-time record 13 Grand Slam singles titles, tore through the opening sets in dismissive fashion, taking just 51 minutes to do so.
Bureau Report