Muster Programmed to Win

MELBOURNE, Australia — Any day now, tennis players will be conspiring by computer, sending e-mail to some bogus address like BeatPetelove.com, feeding information to each other on how to defeat Pete Sampras.

Thomas Muster and his coach can lead the way with the new computer program they’re using to analyze the subtle tendencies of players. It worked for Muster against No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic at the Australian Open, and Muster hopes it’ll work again in the semifinals Friday against the top-seeded Sampras.

Everyone on the ATP Tour would be able to log on and read in, except Sampras.

“I don’t really know how to use a computer,” Sampras said, though he knew how to wield his racket well enough to serve 23 aces Wednesday night and win his second consecutive five-setter, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, against Spain’s Albert Costa.

“It’s all pretty much feel out there for me,” said Sampras, who is 7-0 in five-setters in his career at the Australian Open. “You play these guys enough to know what their tendencies are going to be.”

For the No. 5 Muster, who’s always searching for an edge, it’s more complicated. First, he punishes himself with a training regimen fit for a triathlete. On court, he does whatever it takes to psyche out an opponent. Now he’s added a third element, a computer program he and coach Ronnie Leitgeb use to dissect the strengths and weakness of other players.

“Everyone has a type of play he likes to use,” Muster said. “The computer can help you work it out. We have it and we’ll take advantage of it, but still, you have to go out there and play. The computer doesn’t play for you. It can help you out, but it’s not going to do the work for you.”

It appeared to help against Ivanisevic, with Muster anticipating the direction of his fierce serves enough to break him seven times in a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 romp.

Ivanisevic thought Muster might be ready to beat Sampras.

“This is not a very fast court and I think he has a good game to beat Pete in the semis,” Ivanisevic said. “And if he beats Pete he is going to win [the tournament] pretty easily.”

Sampras is anticipating trouble against Muster, calling a match against him “a war.”

“I’ve played him enough to know what it’s going to be like,” Sampras said. “He’s very intense, he’s ready from the first point, and he doesn’t give up. That’s what makes him so tough to beat. I’m prepared to face that challenge.”

Considering what he’s been through in the past two matches--a five-setter in sweltering heat against 19-year-old Dominik Hrbaty and a three-hour slugfest on a balmy evening against the No. 10 Costa--Sampras said he’s feeling fresh.

Sampras might have spared himself some extra work against Costa if he had capitalized on either of the two break points he gained on Costa’s serve at 5-5 in the second set.

Additionally, one shot Sampras would have liked to play again forced him to go to a fifth set. On the third break point on Sampras’ serve, with Costa leading, 4-3, in the fourth set, the Spaniard blocked back a return that Sampras watched drift past him.

“I misjudged it,” Sampras acknowledged. “If I did it over again, I would have hit it. He just caught the outside of the line.”

That turned out to be the only break of Sampras’ serve in the match, and Costa took advantage to serve out the set.