The image of a dispirited Pete Sampras leaving the show court at Roland Garros yesterday was an uncomfortable one. Given his magisterial hold on the game of tennis, the beaten, broken and hapless 13-times Grand Slam champion departed Paris in the knowledge that he will probably never beat the clay.
Only five players have won all four Grand Slams, Andre Agassi the last to do so in 1999 when he joined Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Fred Perry and Don Budge. Sampras, for all his preeminence as a winner of three of the Slams, will now probably never attain all four.
But there is little surprise. The American's visits to the French Open have been a series of unmet expectations. Yesterday he was asked one of those childishly daft questions: whether, if allowed, he would trade one of his seven Wimbledon titles for a French Open.
"I wouldn't trade any of those for one French," he answered. "To have won seven is quite a bit. I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Sampras has not advanced past the third round at Roland Garros since 1997. Since then the tournament has been a dour procession that Sampras fans have dreaded, a thumping beat of second round, second round, first round and once again a second-round defeat to a name that will mean little to most.
A lightning raid last year brought Galo Blanco to the quarter-finals but that has been it. One of the many clay court warriors from Spain, Blanco contained Sampras to just four points in the first-set tie-break and from there steamrolled the fifth seed 6-3, 6-2. The Sampras serve wavered, allowing Blanco to groove his returns and dictate the game. Even on a hot surface which speeds up the ball, the American's explosive one-shot winners were rarely in evidence. Although Sampras tried to vary play, without a consistent serve he was unusually exposed.
"Yeah, it's always a crappy feeling when you lose in a major - when you lose period," he said. "It's just as hurtful now as it was 10 years ago or five years ago. These next couple of days I'll go home and be a little bummed out.
"If I go through my career not winning the French, sure, it's disappointing. But it is not going to take away from my place in the game. There is still time."
Agassi continues to hold back time and raced through to the next round but Greg Rusedski did not. The left-handed Briton again demonstrated how his game fractures on clay and, above all, under expectation. Having come back from 0-5 down in his last match to win, it appeared he had found a working formula. But after four uncomfortable sets Frenchman Fabrice Santoro advanced 6-1, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-5.
Second seed Marat Safin again appeared short on matches and struggled against Alex Calatrava. Fighting blisters and bouts of inconsistency, he finally closed the match 6-3, 36, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3.
Spain's second highest seed fell in the women's draw when 29-year-old Arantxa SanchezVicario was unhinged by 28year-old American Amy Frazier. Sanchez-Vicario broke her racket in frustration after Frazier claimed the winning point. Spain are now left with Conchita Martinez as their only realistic hope in the women's draw.
The three-times champion Sanchez-Vicario met little resistance in the first set, winning 61 before the match turned in Frazier's favour 6-3, 6-4.
Top seed Martina Hingis was again surgically efficient in her 6-1, 6-0 dismemberment of Columbia's Catalina Castano while Serena Williams oscillated between complete dominance and foolish inconsistency against Slovenian qualifier Katarina Srebotnik. Still, she got the job done as a 6-0 first set was followed by a fluctuating 7-5 second.
"I couldn't stop making mistakes," she said before denying rumours that she and her homeward bound sister Venus were involved in a family dispute. They pulled out of the doubles on Wednesday.
"It wasn't mental. I just kept hitting balls out, hitting them into the net."
A common fault at Roland Garros but one the impressive Jennifer Capriati avoided in her 6-2, 6-1 win over Italy's Tathiana Garbin.
"Clay is not my best surface but I can definitely play on it," said Capriati, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist.
