Columnist Dean Juipe: Sampras richer despite loss

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, June 2, 1998 | 11:06 a.m.

He has been the No. 1 ranked player in the world the past five years and he has 10 Grand Slam tournament titles; yet, once again, Pete Sampras came up empty at the ongoing French Open. He suffered a second-round loss to unseeded Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, dropping his overall French Open record to 22-9 since 1989.

But the man who coached Sampras as a junior at the Jack Kramer Club in Palos Verdes, Calif., says it's likely Sampras was well compensated for making the trip to Paris and that his failures on the red clay surface probably don't bother him despite the negative reviews it inevitably prompts.

"I don't think he's flustered by things like this," said Larry Easley, who now coaches the UNLV men's tennis team. "If he put more time in on clay, he'd do fine. But Pete's going to do what he's going to do and I just don't think he cares as much (about his failure to win a French Open) as some people might think."

Without knowing the exact dollar figure, Easley said he's certain Sampras was paid an appearance fee by the French Open to guarantee his presence.

"I'm sure they paid him a lot," Easley said. "Appearance fees are legal in tennis and it's done with the big stars all the time."

Nonetheless, when Sampras was ousted he had to live with what has become a yearly wave of newspaper and magazine articles that examine his French Open troubles.

For that matter, the entire U.S. men's delegation came under the microscope again when all but one of them was eliminated before the third round.

"Americans don't play on clay too much and anyone growing up in Nevada or Southern California is never going to play on it," Easley said. "It's such a different game. The rallies are longer and you have to be more patient -- you can't just finish off points like you do on hard courts."

TV commentator (and tennis great) Chris Evert said "there's a fine line between aggressiveness and patience on clay," while colleague John McEnroe said "clay destroys confidence."

Yet Easley believes Sampras, 26, isn't bothered by his clay setbacks. "I think he accepts it and goes on," Easley said.

Soccer's World Cup is also going on, June 10 to July 12 in France, yet the threat of terrorism is so pronounced the French police have already jailed 80 dissidents that they felt might be planning to disrupt the event. ... "One of the dumbest ideas of all time," said a national advertising executive, after hearing that NBC and Turner Broadcasting were considering launching a new professional football league in the summer of 2000. ... "It's been very hectic," UNLV golf coach Dwaine Knight said Monday, 24 hours after returning to Las Vegas with the NCAA championship. "I've heard from people not only all over the nation but in Europe and Asia. The phone's ringing off the hook." One of those callers -- guess who -- not only wanted to congratulate the coach and his deserving team but to ask about a photo in Sunday's paper of the Rebels' Chris Berry on the 18th hole of the final round. In the shot, Berry is tossing what is described as "mulch" off to the side and away from his ball. Was this legal? "Yes, and there was an NCAA rules official right there," Knight said. "The rule says you can move loose impediments and the stuff Chris was moving was like ground-up bark or something. As long as it's not embedded, you can always move gravel or stuff like that."

File this under You Never Know: It turns out veteran NBA standout Ron Harper, now a starter with the NBA finalist Chicago Bulls, has moved to Las Vegas. ... A recent survey indicates 8 percent of males leaving a Major League Baseball game are legally drunk. ... The market for baseball cards is in a severe decline, as sales have dropped from $2 billion in 1992 to $1 billion in 1997. Beckett's Monthly, a periodical that caters to card collectors, has seen its subscription list drop from 800,000 in 1991 to 250,000 in '98. ... Las Vegan Tyler Houston has gone on the Chicago Cubs' disabled list with a strained right hamstring. ... Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, a six-term representative to the U.S. House from Kentucky, is giving up that seat to try for the U.S. Senate in November. ... Deion Sanders, who has doubled as a baseball and NFL player over the past eight years, is skipping baseball this season and will be in the Dallas Cowboys' training camp for only the second time in four years. He played 115 games with the Cincinnati Reds last season and has played in 609 overall. ... The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board in Arlington, Va., is weighing a suit brought against the NFL's Washington Redskins. The suit was filed in 1992 and seeks to force the team to change its nickname, as American Indians may find it offensive.

Nice to see Patrice Lefebvre of the Las Vegas Thunder win the International Hockey League's Most Valuable Player award, yet team G.M. Bob Strumm had to be kidding when he said "it was an obvious choice." In truth, Lefebvre didn't seem to have a ghost of a chance for the honor, given his dissatisfaction with the Thunder and the team's disappointing season. ... Five of the six bouts on the boxing card at Arizona Charlie's Saturday feature females and the first thing the gals have to do is fail a pregnancy test provided by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That test has been conducted here for some time but just became mandatory in states like New Jersey, where promoters were stunned recently to find a contestant show up willing to fight despite her pregnant condition. ... Anglers at Lake Mead looking for a world-record striper would have to top the 30.61-pound monster pulled in at the O'Neill Forebay in Los Banos, Calif., in 1992. ... At the Beaver Brook Golf Course in Haydenville, Mass., last week, Todd Obuchowski teed off on the par-3 4th hole and hit his tee shot over a fence and onto a roadway. There, the ball struck a Toyota and -- get this -- rebounded back over the fence and into the cup for a hole in one.