TENNIS: Safin To Emulate Sampras?

Are we about to see a repeat of history?

Last Sunday (September 10) saw Marat Safin win the US Open Championship, his first ever Grand Slam, as a mere 20-year-old - almost a decade after his vanquished final opponent, Pete Sampras, emerged the victor at Flushing Meadows in a manner so strikingly similar.

In 1990, the American was just 19 and only an alien from Mars could be excused for being oblivious to Sampras' subsequent success. Within 10 years, he has managed to accumulate 11 Grand Slam titles, more than any other player in history - a feat that surely confirms his status as the greatest of all time.

How significant was it, therefore, that just when he finally ran out of steam, the man who exhausted him was none other than a precocious talent who, one suspects, also has the ability to go all the way as Sampras had done himself?

The American, for one, deems it very meaningful.

"He reminded me of myself when I was 19 and came here and won for the first time," the seven-time Wimbledon champion said. "The way he's playing he's the future of the game".

Few in the 23,000 crowd that watched the final would disagree. Having ousted the mighty Todd Martin in the last four, Safin continued his powerful game against Sampras and played outstandingly, eventually claiming a straight sets victory, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, to become the first ever Russian to win the $550,000 tournament.

It was Safin's second win over Sampras in the summer, during which he also triumphed in the ATP Masters Series in Toronto.

Perhaps it is too early - even needless - to anticipate Safin now taking the sport by storm and maybe even par with, if not better, Sampras, in ten years' time. But who would dare bet against it?