CEDRIC PIOLINE of France will attempt to deprive world number one Pete Sampras of a fourth Wimbledon singles title tomorrow afternoon after the Frenchman beat Michael Stich in a classic five-set semi-final. It brought the men's singles championship back to life in dramatic fashion on Centre Court last night.
For Stich, like Boris Becker on Thursday, the defeat meant an end to a memorable Wimbledon career but, unlike his compatriot, the 28-year-old went out in spectacular fashion, battling his way back from two sets to one down before finally losing a nail-biting fifth set 6-4 after fractionally less than three hours.
The 1991 champion had actually taken first blood in the duel, winning the first set to two in a tiebreak but, for some time after that, his service game began to cause him problems and the Frenchman, as he had against Greg Rusedski in the previous round, returned superbly to take full advantage of the weakness.
Two breaks of serve in each set appeared to give the world number 44 the upper hand but Stich displayed remarkable resilience in the fourth, finally getting his own renowned backhand return into top gear and unleashing it mercilessly at 5-6 and 30-40 to cash in his second set point and draw level again.
The German lost his opening service game and it proved vital. He simply couldn't come from behind again against an opponent whose backhand, serve and play around the net were, for virtually the entire match, quite outstanding.
"I had the feeling," Stich reflected after a 6-7, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 defeat "that if I had broken back in the last set I would have gone on to win the match. But I have never seen Cedric, and I have played him a lot of times, play so well."
Unfortunately for Pioline, who becomes only the second Frenchman since Jean Borotra, Rene Lacoste and Henri Cochet dominated this event in the 1920s and the first since 1946 to reach the final, Sampras is also familiar with his style.
The top seed has beaten him in each of their seven previous encounters a record which prompted the 28-year-old from Paris to remark with a sigh "Sampras, I am tired of this man, but maybe this time it is finally my turn" after his victory last night.
Earlier, Sampras had secured his place in that final by beating Australian doubles specialist Todd Woodbridge 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 in a contest which, had the two men been boxers, would have ended with the Antipodean spending some time in what Liverpudlians have, coincidently, a tendency to refer to as the "ozzie".
For the 55 minutes it took to complete the first two sets, the 26-year- old was overwhelmed in dramatic fashion by the three-time champion.
He did enough over those two sets to ensure that, had this been a fight, any self-respecting referee would have stepped in to end the contest.
The Australian, who remains on course for a fifth consecutive men's doubles title with Mark Woodforde, had already had a number of chances to break service. But he was repeatedly left stranded as the world number one dug himself out of trouble with a string of power shots.
A considerable amount of pride was salvaged in the remaining games, however, with the underdog holding his own well until the pair reached 6-6 and went into a tie-break. Sampras, who received first, secured an immediate advantage with a forehand winner and the closest Woodbridge came to getting back on terms was a wonderful backhand return of a weak second serve for 4-3.
After that the American pulled something out of reserve, taking two quick points for 6-3 and wrapping up the victory with a powerfully driven service down the centre which his opponent got a racket to but came nowhere close to returning.
