Tennis legend Pete Sampras was honored during the opening night of the LA Tennis Open following an exciting exhibition match against Russian Marat Safin.
It was a memorable “Millennium Challenge” exhibition match between the two former top-ranked players. In fact it was sort of a rematch of the US Open 2000 final with Safin once again prevailing in a close 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 battle.
After the match, Sampras got his 2009 LA Tennis Open Tournament Honoree title. The two-time LA Tennis Open champ was joined by his parents, siblings, wife and children.
“I don’t play in LA too often, and even though I lived in Florida for a few years, when I was playing I always felt like my roots were here,” Sampras was quoted as saying.
“It’s nice to be back, nice to play in front of the LA fans. I wish I would’ve played a little bit better, but I don’t do this very often so I can’t expect miracles out there, but it was fun to play. The crowd was great, packed it in tonight, so it was a nice night,” he added.
Safin, playing his final season on tour, later teamed up with compatriot Igor Kunitsyn to beat Dudi Sela and Marcos Baghdatis in doubles first round.
