1 Response to miami00sampras_lapentti

1. Voo de Mar says:

   September 23, 2025 at 4:14 pm

   Points won by each set: | 39-29, 36-33 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   32 % Sampras – 20 of 62
   28 % Lapentti – 21 of 75

   At the beginning of 2000, there were many (5-10) candidates to win the biggest events in men’s tennis because the two best players of the 90s (Sampras, Agassi) reached the age of veterans, their peers seemed behind their prime (29-year-old Ferreira unexpectedly won Stuttgart ’00 though) and the most promising players born in the 80s didn’t establish themselves on the top yet. Lapentti [9] belonged to those candidates, it was pretty safe to assume he’d win one of the first five Masters 1K titles of 2000 given how well he was playing on different surfaces of 1999, but at Indian Wells and Miami (Key Biscayne) he lost to the eventual champions (Corretja, Sampras), and ultimately Magnus Norman took the position in men’s tennis within Lapentti’s grasp… In Miami, the Ecuadorian lost to Sampras for the second time within a couple of months in straight sets, but in both matches just a few points decided about the final outcome. At Masters ’99, Sampras won 7-6, 7-6 not breaking the serve once, 0/11 (5) in break points, he also squandered two break points in the opening game of their Miami quarterfinal, but broke at 2-all and it was the only time he managed to break the Ecuadorian within four sets. In the 2nd set Lapentti looked better than his great opponent, but he was unable to return any of Sampras’ four serves from 3:2* (40/15) to the end of that game. In the tie-break he lost two points (at 2-all and 3:4) he should have won, and Sampras finished the contest with a high backhand volley.

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