Return Winners: the 2001 ATP Indian Wells final

Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras battled in the 2001 Indian Wells final.

Back in 1990, 19-year-old Andre Agassi reached his first Masters hard-court final at the tournament in Indian Wells, Calif. He lost the championship match to Stefan Edberg, but would turn the tables on the Swede a couple of weeks later in Miami, when he captured the biggest title of his career to that point.

Over the ensuing years, Agassi would battle through slumps to go on to become the first male player to complete the career Grand Slam in 30 years and win multiple Masters titles. However, he was unable to break through in Indian Wells, enduring a series of up-and-down results that culminated with a first-round loss to world No. 34 Hicham Arazi in 2000 as he entered the tournament as the ATP’s top-ranked player.

A year later, though, it was a different story. In his first match, Agassi beat Arazi, then knocked off a row of young players to reach the final for the first time since 1995. There, he would face his greatest rival, Pete Sampras, a two-time champion at the tournament who was looking for his first title of the season and had topped Agassi in that ’95 final.

Winners of two of the past three Grand Slams, Agassi and Sampras were facing each other for the first time since their five-set semifinal classic at the 2000 Australian Open, when Agassi rallied from the brink of defeat to win. In the first set of this final, the two stayed on even ground throughout, with Agassi fighting off a set point to push the opener into a tiebreak. His normal reliable server misfiring, Sampras hit two double faults and Agassi eventually won the tiebreak 7-5.

It appeared that another tiebreak was on the way as the two remained on serve through the bulk of the second set. However, serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Sampras was broken, giving Agassi a 2-0 edge in the best-of-five affair. From there, the world No. 4 rolled: Serving at 5-1, 40-15, Agassi struck a serve down the T that Sampras failed to return to clinch the victory. It would be Agassi’s second triumph of the season after winning his third Australian Open and a first at Indian Wells after more than a decade of frustration at the tournament.

1

For the first time in their careers, Agassi won three consecutive matches against Sampras.

2

Agassi became the second player since 1990 to win all of the hard-court Masters events at least once after Michael Chang.

9

Sampras still maintained a one-match advantage in hard-court meetings, 9-8, over Agassi after this encounter.