After a tournament fraught with doubt and a final fractured with interminable rain delays, Pete Sampras yesterday burst into tears as he claimed his seventh Wimbledon title and became the first player in the history of the game to win 13 Grand Slam events.
Sampras' four-set win over Australian Pat Rafter was a battle between a champion, who had struggled through the two weeks with a niggling tendon injury in his shin, and a twice US Open winner, Rafter, who was on his return after shoulder injury. In the event Sampras outstripped his and Roy Emerson's joint record of 12 Grand Slam wins.
Sampras immediately looked around the packed stadium searching for his parents, who were sitting far away from the players box before climbing up through the crowd to embrace his father, Sam, and mother, Georgia. It was the first time either of his parents had been to Wimbledon and the first time they had ever seen their son win a Grand Slam final.
The last time an American had gone on to Centre Court against an Australian was in 1974 when the bombastic Jimmy Connors defeated Ken Rosewall in three sets. It was also Rafter's first meeting with Sampras on grass, the champion leading 9-4 in career wins on other surfaces.
The match began to take shape from the first several games as the big serves boomed down on each side. Overall Sampras was by far the more successful, hitting 27 aces to Rafter's 12. It was not pretty, but such were the stakes for Sampras that nerves crept into the match very early indeed. The first two sets went to a tie-break with Sampras double faulting to hand Rafter the first set, 12-10. The second took a similar shape and although Sampras threatened Rafter's serve, neither player could break. Rafter shot to a 4-1 lead suggesting he would take a two-set lead but let five points in succession slip, Sampras coming away the winner, 7-5.
That bad run probably cost Rafter the match. In the third set Sampras broke in the fifth game on his 10th break point of the match. Again it was Rafter's undoing as he appeared to take his eye off a volley and netted the ball, Sampras winning 6-4. As the light was fading badly there was some doubt as to whether the game would finish but again it was Sampras who was able to step up a gear, if only for a game. Another loose volley from Rafter gave Sampras 0-40. Although the Australian saved two of the break points, a mis-hit backhand looped over Rafter's head and landed on the baseline.
"It's very emotional," said Sampras. "I wanted my parents to be a part of it. I'm glad they hopped on the plane and made it here."
"The way the match was going I thought it was going to slip away. I worked very hard to get here. I lost my nerve out there in the first set. But if it didn't happen it didn't happen."
"The older I've gotten the more you want your family around. I told myself if I got to the final I wanted them to be here. In the past they've got very nervous. They're shy people and they don't want to be on camera," he said.
The women's final lived up to its billing of a towering slug-fest between the fifth seed Venus Williams and number two seed Lindsay Davenport in which Williams lived up to her two weeks of convincing hype.
The 20-year-old who brought to an end the Wimbledon hopes of her 18-year-old sister Serena in the semi-final became the first African-American since Althea Gibson in 1958 to win the Wimbledon singles championship.
Gibson, 72, who now lives as something of a recluse, applauded the Williams' achievement. "I am pleased that Venus won the championship," she said yesterday from her home in New Jersey, praising Venus and her younger sister Serena, the reigning US Open champion.
"Their time is now," Gibson said. "They have worked very hard to get to this point and position. They have the talent and the availability of resources to attain a greater record."
