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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 7:45 p.m., Monday, February 18, 2008

Tennis: Sampras thrashes Haas in exhibition

By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Pete Sampras hit back-to-back aces to close out the second game of the second set and draw a plea from Tommy Haas.

"Show some mercy, Pete" Haas yelled across the court.

Sampras began to hand his racket over to a ball boy before taking it back. Just as he did so often during his brilliant career, Sampras closed out the match with ease, beating Haas 6-4, 6-2 in an exhibition at the SAP Open tonight.

It was Sampras' second straight exhibition win against an active tour player, following November's straight-set victory over Roger Federer. Yet it's still not enough to bring Sampras back to the tour after retiring more than five years ago at age 31 with a record 14 Grand Slam titles.

Asked after the match whether he would reconsider his decision and mount a comeback, Sampras initially teased the fans.

"All right, I'll tell you what I'll do," he said. "For the fans, I'll come back."

That generated yet another ovation before Sampras brought a dose of reality to the proceedings.

"But for me, I'm happy to be retired," Sampras added. "It's a lot of work to come out of retirement. I know what it takes to win. ... Not to tease you, but I'm not going to come back."

Sampras was erratic at the start, hitting a forehand more than 10 feet long on the first point of the match and double-faulting to open his first service game. But he also showed a sharp serve-and-volley game as the match went on, even hitting a pair of his signature jump-volley slams to win points.

Sampras got the only break of the first set, approaching the net on a second serve by Haas before putting away a forehand volley winner and following it with a forehand winner off a first serve to go up 4-3. Sampras then breezed through the second set, breaking Haas twice and holding serve each time.

Next up for Sampras is another exhibition against Federer on March 10 at Madison Square Garden. The two greats played three times in Asia in November, with Federer winning the first two matches in straight sets and Sampras winning the final one 7-6 (8), 6-4 on the fast indoor surface at the Venetian Macao arena.