By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
No. 4 seed Pete Sampras defeated Chris Woodruff 7-5, 6-2 in a Tuesday afternoon match at UCLA’s LATC at the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Sampras was up in the first set by 4-1, but Woodruff managed to tie the set at 5-5 before Sampras took the next two games.
The next set was no contest. Sampras led consistently, and even found time for flashy moves. The game winner for the fourth game came on a slow overpass ball. Sampras leaped in the air, showed some good hang time that looked more like it belonged on a volleyball player going for the kill, and slammed the ball down.
“I started out a little nervous. I just rushed a few shots I normally wouldn’t rush,” Woodruff said.
In other Tuesday afternoon first-round action:
- Former UCLA player Justin Gimelstob lost 6-4, 7-5 to Xavier Malisse of Belgium. Malisse maintained a steady lead over Gimelstob throughout the first set. In the second set Gimelstob was leading 5-2, but Malisse tied the score, broke Gimelstob for his next point and then had two aces for his last.
- No. 5 seed and last year’s L.A. runner-up Jan-Michael Gambill breezed his way past American qualifier Michael Joyce 6-1, 6-3. With Gambill leading 5-3 and the points tied at 30, Joyce hit an easy return into the net to give Gambill match-point, and then Gambill slammed the next shot down the line for the win. He will face fellow American Paul Goldstein next.
- No. 8 seed Tommy Haas of Germany defeated South Korea’s No. 1 Hyung-Taik Lee 6-4, 6-4. Haas next plays American Bob Bryan.
In first-round doubles action:
- The team of Sjeng Schaklen (Netherlands) and Daniel Vacek (Switzerland) defeated the wild card American teen team of Taylor Dent and Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-4.
- Americans Gambill and Andy Roddick won their first-round match, beating fellow American youths Lester Cook and Levar Harper-Griffith 7-6(1), 6-2.
-South African David Adams and France’s Michael Llodra defeated Japan’s Thomas Shimada and American Jack Waite 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4.