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Sampras stuns Federer

— Photo: AFP

RETURN OF THE LEGEND: In a scene reminiscent of his heyday, Pete Sampras comes up with a return between his legs during his straight-sets win over Roger Federer on Saturday.

MACAU: Pete Sampras stunned Roger Federer in straight sets on Saturday to win the third and final match of their Asian exhibition series.

Sampras, who retired in 2002, won both his break points against the current World No. 1 in the 7-6(8), 6-4 upset at the Venetian Macao arena.

The former U.S. World champion forced the first break of the match at 4-4 in the second set and served out for victory.

He had earlier taken the first set on a tie-break 10-8 after a tight affair in which there were no breaks of serve.

Impressive

Serve continued to dominate at the start of the second set with neither player able to force the vital break.

Federer pushed Sampras to deuce in game eight, but the U.S. player produced an ace to get out of trouble and level it up at 4-4.

Both players hit 14 aces during the match.

Sampras made 15 unforced errors to Federer’s 13, while Sampras won 14 points at the net to Federer’s six.

“It’s one for the old guy,” the American said afterward.

“It was very fast out there, very quick conditions. It was helping out my service games. I got going a little bit today and it could have gone either way in the first set.”

The 26-year-old Federer praised his opponent’s serve, saying he still could compete at the top five level in the world. “We delivered a great level of play. Unfortunately I didn’t win today but the surface was really quick and Pete was playing really well and hardly making any mistakes,” he said. — Agencies

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