Sweden took a step closer to their sixth Davis Cup triumph in Gothenburg yesterday when they took a shock 2-0 lead over the United States in the final after world number one Pete Sampras retired injured during his opening singles against Magnus Larsson.
Larsson was leading 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 2-1 in front of a capacity 11,000 crowd inside the Sandinavium arena when Sampras withdrew.
The 26-year-old American had needed treatment on court in the seventh game of the second set and he then took an injury time-out two games later. But he was simply not the same player who had raced through to win the first set in just 43 minutes and unleashed the fastest serve of the day - at 126 miles per hour. Earlier Jonas Bjorkman had got Sweden off to a winning start, surviving a mid-match crisis to defeat Michael Chang 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first singles game.
Ironically, Sampras had to withdraw with an identical injury while playing against Sweden in the same stadium in the semi-finals in 1994. Sweden went on to win that match and then beat Russia in the final.
"Of course it's disappointing the way it ended," said Larsson. "But there was nothing we could do about it and the most important thing is that we won the match."
It was Larsson's fourth win over Sampras in 14 career meetings and his third success against the American this year.
He also defeated Sampras at the Monte Carlo Open and at Indianapolis this season.
Sweden also beat the United States in the final in the Gothenburg arena in 1984.
Sampras was rushed to a local hospital for a scan after the match but American captain Tom Gullikson confirmed: "He didn't have any injury before the match. In the second set he felt what he thought was a twinge of cramp but it kept getting worse and it was hurting him to put weight on it," he said.
The only year a team has recovered to win the trophy after trailing 2-0 after the first day's singles in the final was in 1939, when Australia rallied to beat the United States.
In today's doubles the United States are scheduled to play Todd Martin and Jonathan Stark against Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti.
Davis Cup (in Gothenburg, Sweden) - Final: J Bjorkman (Swe) bt M Chang (USA) 7-5 1-6 6-3 6-3, M Larsson (Swe) bt P Sampras (USA) 3-6 7-6 (7/1) 2-1 retired. Sweden 2 United States 0.
