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tiebreaker

It’s A TIEBREAKER, Not A TIEBREAK Because Its Inventor Jimmy Van Alen Told Bud Collins That’s What It Is Called

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

“It’s a tiebreaker. Not a tiebreak.”

This is one on the gospels of Bud Collins, the late great and one and only Hall of Fame tennis historian, journalist and personality. Bud was one of the great “gate keepers” of the game, playing his part in preserving history and traditions and promoting the game where ever he could.

I could practically hear Bud exclaim “tiebreaker, not tiebreak” in the context of the historic 20-18 decisive match tiebreaker won by Lesia Tsurenko over Ana Bogan in the third round of Wimbledon. I was corrected on numerous occasions by Bud during the many fortunate years I spent with him during my 12-year stint working at press officer for the U.S. Tennis Association and for years after I became his book publisher in 2007.

I emailed Anita Ruthling Klaussen, Bud’s widow and the keeper and protector of all things “Bud” since his 2016 death, to reiterate the use of the term “tiebreaker” and to reconfirm the story of how it was Jimmy Van Alen, the man who actually created the tiebreaker, who wanted it to be called by its correct name of “tiebreaker.”

“At the very beginning, Bud asked Jimmy Van Alen what he wanted to call it because there was confusion. Jimmy said: TIEBREAKER. Period, the end,” wrote Klaussen, preceding her explanation by writing to me “Bud is looking down at you with approval,” which made me smile. “Bud was horrified by the corruption of the word, just as he was of winning a ‘Grand Slam.’ One wins a MAJOR, winning four in a year is a Grand Slam.  He came to be OK with the tournaments being referred to as a Grand Slam Tournament, but he still preferred MAJOR Tournament.” (I take a deeper dive in the use of “Major” vs. “Grand Slam” conversation in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L7CrpyVpLE)

On page 775 of “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” – the tennis encyclopedia the Collins was also famous for – Collins lists the longest tiebreakers of all-time with a 26-24 tiebreaker in men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1985 being the longest on record, won by Michael Mortensen and Jan Gunnarson over Victor Pecci and John Frawley in their 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (24) first round win.

Even though there is no “official” record of it, there was an incredible 36-34 tiebreaker played in the final round of qualifying at a ITF World Tennis Tour USTA Pro Circuit event in Plantation, Florida in 2013, but the match did not have a chair umpire or scorecard. Read my story about that here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/8769

Tsurenko and Bogdan’s tiebreaker should be clarified as it was a “match tiebreaker” which is a first-to-10 point tiebreaker as opposed to the first-to-seven-point tiebreaker, which evolved from the original sudden-death nine-point tiebreaker, which was the first-to-five-point tiebreaker with a 4-4 point being a sudden-death point. Tsurenko and Bogdan’s “match tiebreaker” is the longest on record for a women’s match. The longest-ever women’s tiebreaker happened in doubles at the Amelia Island event in 2006 with Bryanne Stewart and Nicole Pratt defeating Rennae Stubbs and Corina Morariu 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (22-20).

The U.S. Open was the first major tournament to implement tiebreakers at the 1970 tournament. Neil Amdur of the New York Times wrote on July 26, 1970, “In the most revolutionary step in tournament tennis scoring since ‘love’ became synonymous with losers, a sudden-death scoring system will be instituted for all matches in the $160,000 United States Open championships, Sept. 2 through 13, at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens.” Amdur continued, “A 9‐point tiebreaker, recently approved for experimental use by the International Lawn Tennis Federation, will decide all sets reaching 6‐6. The player who wins 5 of the 9 points in the playoff wins the set or match.”

Later in the Amdur article, under a sub-headline titled “How Tiebreaker Works,” Amdur quotes U.S. Open tournament director Bill Talbert explaining how the 9-point “tiebreaker” works and that Talbert said the tiebreaker should have tremendous impact, artistically and psychologically.”

In 2022, it was announced that all four major tournaments would implement a 10-point match tiebreaker at 6-6 in decisive sets, falling in line with the Australian Open, which had the practice in place since 2019.

So when the score is 6-6 in a set, remember Bud Collins and Jimmy Van Alen and call it by its proper name….a tiebreaker.

Bud Collins and Jimmy Van Alen

Reilly Opelka and John Isner Play The Longest Men’s Singles Tiebreaker Ever At The Dallas Open…Or Was It?!?!

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Records that are equaled five different times deserve to be broken.

Saturday at the first-year Dallas Open in Texas, John Isner and Reilly Opelka played the longest tiebreaker in men’s singles play in ATP history when Opelka won a 24-22 second-set tiebreaker in his 7-6 (7), 7-6 (22) semifinal win.

Back at Wimbledon in 1973, Bjorn Borg, then just a 17-year-old won a 20-18 tiebreaker over Premjit Lall to close out a 6-3, 6-4, 9-8 (20-18) first round victory. 1973 Wimbledon. Since then, five times (as outlined below), the 20-18 tiebreaker threshold was equaled, but not eclipsed in men’s singles, in matches featuring Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Goran Ivanisevic and others, including another player named “Bjorn.”

While a women’s singles match and women’s doubles match broke the 20-18 mark (as seen below), the longest ever tie-breaker on record in a “tour-level” match was 50 points (26-24) Michael Mortensen and Jan Gunnarson beating John Frawley and Victor Pecci 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (26-24) in the first round of Wimbledon in 1985.

The Opelka vs. Isner match harkened me back to a story I wrote about an even longer tiebreaker in very distinct and unusual circumstances, as excerpted below.

The longest tie-breaker on record was played last weekend.

Except, it’s not on record.

The talk of the tennis world on Monday – particularly on Twitter – was of a 70-point tie-breaker played Sunday between two members of Monaco’s Davis Cup team in the third round of qualifying at the $10,000 USTA Futures event in Plantation, Florida – Benjamin Balleret defeating Guillaume Couillard 7-6 (36-34), 6-1. The tie-breaker was 20 points longer than the previous longest tie-breaker on record, which was, according to THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS, a 50-point (26-24) tie-breaker in a Wimbledon doubles match from 1985.

The only “problem” with the Balleret-Couillard tie-breaker is that there is, technically, no real “record” of it.

After word of the epic tie-breaker was distributed via social media from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), I sent an email to David Littlefield, the USTA/ITF Tour Supervisor on site at the event, to get more details on the historic match, such as number of set points each player had, how long the tie-breaker was in length of time and any other stats that could be mustered. The official chair umpire’s scorecard is always the official record of any tennis match that is played.

Littlefield reminded me in his return email to me late Monday night that the Balleret-Couillard match was only a qualifying match in a Futures event, the lowest level tournament in pro tennis and, as he wrote, “all matches in qualifying are played without any chair umpire or any lines people. The players call their own lines and the matches have a few ‘roving’ certified officials that watch several courts at once and may be called on from time to time to settle any disputes between the players. There is no ‘official’ record of the match, such as a scorecard, no total time of the set, nor any way to know the number of set points any of the players had in the course of the tie-break.”

He went on to write that the now famous tie-breaker was witnessed by spectators and that the players are true professionals who “would not just make up a score for the hell of it.”

Couillard tweeted that he had 11 set points in tie-breaker, meaning that Balleret had at least 19 set points.

Balleret is 29 years old and currently ranked No. 636 after posting a career high ranking of No. 204 in 2006. That year, he qualified for his hometown ATP tournament in Monte Carlo, defeating former top-five player Jonas Bjorkman in the final round of qualifying. Couillard is currently unranked, held a career-high ranking of No. 569 in 2002 and is 37 years old.

According to the authoritative THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS book ($35.95, available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559386/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_H3S87FHAE9J2X11RA0HY the longest tie-break on record – 50 points – came in the first round of Wimbledon in 1985 when Michael Mortensen and Jan Gunnarson defeated John Frawley and Victor Pecci 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (26-24). The full list of the longest tie-breakers from the Collins’ book is found below.

Longest Tie-Breakers

Men’s Singles

38 – (20-18) Roger Federer d. Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6 (20-18), semifinal, 2004 Tennis Masters Cup, Houston

38 – (20-18) Bjorn Borg d. Premjit Lall 6-3, 6-4, 9-8 (20-18), first round, 1973 Wimbledon

38 – (20-18) Andy Roddick d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 (18-20), 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-3, first round, 2007 Australian Open

38 – (20-18) Goran Ivanisevic d. Daniel Nestor 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (20-18), first round, 1993 US Open

38 – (20-18) Jose Acasuso d. Bjorn Phau 7-5 7-6 (20-18), first round, Toronto, 2006

38 – (20-18) Goran Ivanisevic d. Greg Rusedski, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (20-18), semifinal, Queens Club, 1997

Women’s Singles

40 – (21-19) Emmanuelle Gagliardi d. Tara Snyder 6-7 (19-21), 6-1, 6-1, second round, Madrid, 1999

Men’s Doubles

50 – (26-24) Michael Mortensen and Jan Gunnarson d. John Frawley and Victor Pecci 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (26-24), first round, Wimbledon, 1985

Women’s Doubles

42 – (22-20) Nicole Pratt and Bryanne Stewart d. Corina Morariu and Rennae Stubbs 7-6 (5), 7-6 (22-20), first round, 2006 Amelia Island

Ben Balleret of Monaco has a unique footnote mention in "The Bud Collins History of Tennis"
Ben Balleret of Monaco has a unique footnote mention in “The Bud Collins History of Tennis”

NADAL SEEKS FIFTH FRENCH TITLE, RETURN TO NO. 1 AND REVENGE AGAINST SODERLING

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Rafael Nadal will be seeking a fifth French Open title, a return to the world No. 1 ranking and revenge in Sunday’s championship match at Roland Garros.

The No. 2-seeded Nadal toppled Austrian Jurgen Melzer, playing in his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) Friday to reach the French Open final for a fifth time in six years, where he will face No. 5-seed Robin Soderling, the man who handed him his first and only career loss at Roland Garros last year in the round of 16.

Soderling, who shocked world No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, outlasted No. 15-seeded Tomas Berdych, also playing in his first-ever major semi, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the other Friday semifinal.

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Nadal had been 31-0 on the famed red clay before losing to the big-hitting Swede last year. Nadal will appear in his fifth final here in six years, seeking a fifth title. Only Bjorn Borg, with six championships, has won more French Open titles than Nadal in the Open Era (since 1968).

The powerful Nadal is a six-time major champion, including four straight French Open titles from 2005-08. He’s now 37-1 lifetime at this Parisian major.

Nadal would supplant Roger Federer atop the men’s rankings for a second time with a title here this week. The Spaniard is seeking his fourth straight championship on the tour, having recently titled at Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, a trio of ATP Masters tournaments.

Soderling, meanwhile, will compete in his second straight Roland Garros finale. He lost to Federer in last year’s French Open finale.

Nadal cruised through the first two sets on Day 13, as he broke Melzer a pair of times in an easy first set and tallied two more breaks in the second. Up 5-4 and serving for the match, Nadal had a slight lapse. He lost four consecutive points, including a double-fault to give Melzer the break for 5-5.

The set went to a tiebreaker after both players held serve. A missed overhead by Nadal gave Melzer a quick 2-0 lead in the tiebreak, but Nadal responded with three straight points before back-to-back errors from Melzer gave the Spaniard a pair of match points at 6-4. Melzer, though, saved both — the second with a perfectly placed drop shot.

A forehand winner gave Nadal his third match point, which he converted when Melzer drilled a shot into the net.

The powerful Nadal, who turned 24 on Thursday, is now 3-0 lifetime against his fellow lefthander Melzer.

Soderling cruised through the first set against Berdych on Friday before the Czech returned the favor for an easy win in the second.

In the third set, Berdych broke Soderling to grab a 6-5 edge and then held his serve to surprisingly go up two-sets-to-one in the slugfest.

In set number four, the big Swede got a big break he needed to secure a 4-2 advantage and would ease his way to a set win after that.

The fifth set opened up with back-to-back breaks, but Soderling would assume control with the biggest break of the bout, as he grabbed a 4-3 lead in the deciding stanza. Soderling then held and broke again to reach a second straight final here. The Swede converted on his first match point on a sunny Friday when Berdych knocked a backhand wide to cap a lengthy match-ending rally.

Soderling advanced in 3 hours, 27 minutes despite being out-aced (21-18), tallying eight double faults, and recording 22 more unforced errors (63-41). The Swede did, however, have two more breaks of serve (6-4), which proved to be the difference in the end.

FEDERER SHOCKED BY BAGHDATIS IN INDIAN WELLS

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World No. 1 Roger Federer wasted three match points and then lost to Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) Tuesday night in a third-round shock upset result at the BNP Paribas Open.

A joyous Baghdatis bent down and kissed the court after his first win over Federer in seven matches.

Federer hadn’t lost when having a match point since 2006 in Rome, when he lost to Rafael Nadal in five sets.

It was the Swiss star’s second loss in 13 matches this year, and in his first tournament since winning his 16th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

“It was one of those matches that just happens,” Federer said. “I didn’t play terrible. It just happens.”

Federer had his third match point on Baghdatis’ serve in the 12th game, but he netted a backhand for deuce. Baghdatis went up and then forced the tiebreaker when Federer mis-hit a backhand return that sailed high over the baseline.

Federer played some loose points in the tiebreaker, committing seven errors that included netting a forehand volley to give Baghdatis a match point, which the Cypriot converted on Federer’s backhand return sailed long.

The match was a re-match of the 2006 Australian Open final, won by Federer 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2. Rene Stauffer, the author of the book THE ROGER FEDERER STORY: QUEST FOR PERFECTION ($24.95, New Chapter Press, www.RogerFedererBook.com), summarizes that 2006 match in this exclusive book excerpt below.

In his six matches en route to the final, Federer lost four sets—more than previously surrendered while reaching a Grand Slam final. The man from Basel, however, was still the overwhelming favorite to win the title when he faced unseeded upstart Marcos Baghdatis—a 200-1 outsider to win the title. The 20-year-old bearded maverick from the island of Cyprus was the major story of the tournament—defeating Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic and David Nalbandian in succession to become an unlikely Grand Slam finalist. Cyprus, a small island nation off the Greek and Turkish coast in the Mediterranean with no tennis history whatsoever, was suddenly stricken with tennis fever as businesses closed and children skipped school to watch his matches. Baghdatis was unseeded, ranked No. 54 in the world and had never won an ATP tournament in his career at the time. To boot, he held an 0-3 record against Federer and Federer had never lost a Grand Slam final—let alone to an unseeded player.

The Melbourne Age newspaper carried the headline “The Wizard And The Apprentice” before the final, but as the match began, the question was which was which. Baghdatis, supported throughout the fortnight by the many Greeks in Melbourne who created a soccer-stadium atmosphere with chants, cheers and flag-waving, continued to play boldly, aggressively and on the offensive—as he had the entire tournament—while Federer struggled, particu­larly off the forehand side. Federer lost the first set 7-5 and saved two break points to prevent a double-service-break 0-3 deficit in the second set. After he held serve, Federer then broke the Cypriot’s serve in the next game to square the set at 2-2. After the two players exchanged service holds, a stroke of good luck benefited Federer late in the set as an overruled call on set point gave Federer the second set 7-5. The momentum immediately turned in Federer’s favor and the challenge to his supremacy ended. Federer’s 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2 victory secured him his seventh Grand Slam title—tying him with such legends as Richard Sears and William Renshaw—heroes of the 1880s—as well as John McEnroe, John Newcombe, Mats Wilander and two of four French Musketeers, Rene Lacoste and Henri Cochet.

Federer showed no exuberance as the award ceremony began, but when Rod Laver bestowed the Norman Brookes Trophy upon him, he was overcome with emotions. “I don’t know what to say,” he said at the start of his victory speech, before he fell silent. He barely managed to congratulate Baghdatis and thank his entourage and sponsors. When he mentioned Laver and that the title meant a great deal to him, his voice cracked, just like at his first Wimbledon victory, and he could no longer hold back his tears.

“I was terribly nervous,” Federer told Swiss television commentator Heinz Günthardt after he left the court. “It was an immense burden to be so clearly favored against a newcomer.” With seven Grand Slam titles, Federer began to compete not only against his contemporaries on the other side of the net, but against the ghosts of tennis history, including Pete Sampras and Rod Laver, who was standing next to him on this day.

IT’S RODDICK VS VERDASCO IN SAN JOSE

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SAN JOSE, Calif. —Andy Roddick was outplayed for most of the night by Sam Querrey. But when the match got to the tiebreakers, Roddick took charge.

The top-seeded Roddick beat the seventh-seeded Querrey, 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4), on Saturday night in a protracted semifinal at the SAP Open that featured a combined 53 aces.

Roddick reached the final of the event, which will be held on Sunday, for the fourth time. He will face Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, who reached his first final since October by beating Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 earlier in the day.

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t fortunate or lucky,” Roddick said. “Sam pretty much outplayed me the entire match. When I’m not hitting the ball as well, I use my serve to get me some points. I figured if I get to the tiebreak in the second set it could turn real quick.”

Querrey, a San Francisco native, never faced a break point and had 32 aces.

“I played well the entire match,” Querrey said. “It was just a couple of loose errors in the tiebreaks. I just kind of sprayed a couple.”

Roddick held serve in 30 of 31 previous games, but was broken by Querrey twice in the first set. Querrey held serve in all but one game of the tournament.

“I was just sticking around,” said Roddick, who improved to 13-1 on the year and won his 11th tiebreaker in 13 chances. “It seemed like Sam aced me every other point. I need to get a better look at those shots.”

Roddick, who reached his 46th ATP World Tour final, has a seven-match winning streak against Verdasco and is 9-2 against him all-time.

The second-seeded Verdasco will attempt to become the first Spaniard to win a title in the Bay Area since Manuel Santana in 1964.

“I was not playing great in the first set, but I wasn’t missing,” Verdasco said. “We were both up and down and when it came to end of the match I tried to push harder, make good returns and send the ball deep. I hit two good forehands and he made a couple of mistakes. He’s playing well this year and he’s dangerous.”

Istomin, enjoying a breakout season, beat a pair of seeded players to reach his first career ATP Tour semifinal. He reached the third round of the Australian Open.

“I’ve started the season well and I hope that leads to a good year,” said the 23-year-old Istomin, who plays next in Marseille, France before playing in the Davis Cup. “Every match is an opportunity to improve. I can play with these guys. I can battle with these guys.”

Verdasco reached his 10th ATP World Tour final, and his second on American soil. He won his third tour title in New Haven, Conn., last August. He becomes the first left-hander to reach the finals here since Greg Rusedski beat Andre Agassi in the 2001 championship match.

“If I was going to be honest with myself I did not expect to get to the final,” Verdasco said. “After the Australian Open I took 10 days off to rest and only practiced three days in Los Angeles before coming up here.”

Santana remains a pivotal figure in Spanish tennis and is the tournament director of the Masters Series in Madrid. Verdasco invited him to Wimbledon two years ago as an adviser.

“I never saw him play but everybody tells me he had talent,” Verdasco said. “We’ve had a relationship for many years already.”

RODDICK, VERDASCO REACH SAP SEMIFINALS

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SAN JOSE, California — Top seeds Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco advanced into the semifinals of the SAP Open Friday with straight-set victories.

Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick

America’s Roddick, seeded No. 1 and seeking the fourth San Jose title of his career, defeated No. 5-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5). Second-seeded Verdasco defeated Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Roddick and Berdych combined to hit 34 aces – 16 for Roddick and 18 for Berdych..

“He forced me to play well,” Roddick said. “I made no bones about the fact that I would have to work my way into this event. You don’t always have to feel comfortable to win a tennis match.”

He next faces seventh-seeded compatriot Sam Querrey, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Michael Russell.

Berankis, ranked No. 225 denied Verdasco a break chance in the second set.

But the 19-year-old, who was the first Lithuanian-born player to reach the ATP Tour quarterfinals, couldn’t hold off Verdasco in the tiebreaker.

The Spaniard said his sore right hamstring was improving.

“I’ve been getting treatment for it and that’s all I can do,” Verdasco said. “Since the first moment I played here it’s feeling pretty good and even more so now.”

Verdasco will have the advantage in experience over his semifinal opponent as well, when he takes on unseeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Istomin, who had beaten fourth-seeded German Tommy Haas in the second round, downed sixth-seeded German Philipp Kohlshreiber 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the first semifinal of his career.

“I’m so happy – the first time in my career I play a semi-final,” he said. “Today I played so well – I think it’s the best match I played of my life.”

ANDY RODDICK TAKES BRISBANE

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Top-seeded Andy Roddick survived a second-set collapse Sunday to win the Brisbane International title, beating defending champion Radek Stepanek after the Czech player double-faulted on match point.

The American’s 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7) victory in the final capped his first tournament in nearly three months due to a 2009 season-ending knee injury.

Roddick nearly let the match slip away. He led 4-0 in the second set before Stepanek came back to take a 6-5 lead, with Roddick needing to hold service to force a tiebreaker.

The Czech player held a set point at 7-6 in the second-set tiebreaker. Roddick won the next two points on serve, then watched Stepanek double-fault to hand him the Brisbane title.

The lopsided tiebreaker loss in the first set seemed to deflate Stepanek. Serving to open the second set, the Czech hit a forehand into the net, double-faulted, mis-hit a backhand and double-faulted again on break point to give Roddick a 1-0 lead.

Roddick led 4-0 before Stepanek broke the American’s powerful serve twice to level the set at 5-5.

The 27-year-old Roddick injured his left knee in October, and the Australian Open warmup in Brisbane was his first tournament back.

Roddick’s win ended Stepanek’s nine-game winning streak at the Brisbane International.

“Radek, I know you won here last year and you were undefeated on this court and for a while I thought it might be your destiny,” Roddick told the crowd at Pat Rafter Arena after his win.

“One thing about you, you get to every ball and never give up the fight— that’s to be applauded.”

It was Roddick’s first career title in Australia—and in his first final Down Under. He has had a frustrating time at the Australian Open, making the semifinal four times in the past seven years, only to be denied a shot at the title.

Roddick said he had to “hold on to the last shred of sanity” to win the match.

“I didn’t expect to come in and win my first tournament after a pretty extended layoff,” Roddick said. “You could focus on the last 20 minutes of stress or look at the whole week … overall I feel pretty good about it.

“It was weird. I don’t think I have squandered a lead where I have been putting in first serves and making approach shots. And in the breakers it was the same deal. I kept making first serves so that was helping me hold on to the last shred of sanity I had.

“But at the end of the day the only thing that will be remembered is the ‘w’ (win).”

Stepanek was happy with his ability to nearly turn the match around.

“To come back from 1-5 down (in the second set) against a player such as Andy with a tremendous serve, it was a great battle,” Stepanek said.

“I never gave up. I was fighting until the last point. I said to myself ‘you are in Brisbane, you won here last year, there is something special here’, but in the end it wasn’t good enough.”

The Brisbane women’s singles champion was decided Saturday when Kim Clijsters beat fellow Belgian Justine Henin 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) in a clash of two players back on tour after temporary retirements.

Clijsters, only five tournaments into her own comeback which has already netted the U.S. Open title, saved two match points and then wasted three before clinching the win over Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam title winner playing her first tournament back on tour.

Henin later pulled out of this week’s Sydney International with an upper left leg injury, but expects to be fit for the Australian Open which starts on Jan. 18.

CLIJSTERS SAVES MATCH POINTS, BEATS HENIN IN BRISBANE FINAL

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In the all-Belgian final of the Brisbane International, it was Kim Clijsters who did not waffle.

Clijsters hung on to win a momentum-swinging final at the Patrick Rafter Arena in a vintage finish Saturday in Justine Henin’s tour comeback. Clijsters, only five tournaments into her own comeback which has already netted the U.S. Open title, saved two match points and then wasted three before winning 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) over the seven-time Grand Slam titlist.

Clijsters started strongly and led by a set and 4-1 before Henin staged a dramatic rally.

Henin, playing in the top tier for the first time since she quit while holding the No. 1 ranking in May 2008, won eight of the next nine games to take a 3-0 lead in the third.

Clijsters rallied to 3-3, then gave up a break and gave Henin match points in the 10th game.

She held her nerve and, 15 minutes later, held her arms in the air, celebrating what she thought was a championship-winning backhand down the line in the tiebreaker when the umpire overruled.

Henin got back to 6-6 in the tiebreaker but then double-faulted to give Clijsters a fourth match point. She made no mistake this time, with a forehand that Henin couldn’t get.

“Huh, what a match!” Clijsters told the crowd. “I think we set the bar pretty high for ourselves for the rest of the year.

“It’s a great tournament to start the year with. I couldn’t be happier with myself.”

The top-seeded Clijsters closed Henin’s lead in career head-to-heads to 12-11, ending the three-match winning streak that Henin had in 2006 — maintaining a sequence in which no player won more than three straight.

Clijsters took more than two years off the tour and got married to American Brian Lynch and had a daughter, Jada, in February 2008.

She was only three tournaments into a comeback when she won the U.S. Open in September and became the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.

Courier Tops Sampras To Win Breezeplay Title In Charlotte

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 27, 2009 – Jim Courier defeated Pete Sampras 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 (Champions Tie-breaker) Sunday to win the singles title at the $150,000 Breezeplay Championships at The Palisades at The Palisades Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. The victory was Courier’s first over Sampras since the first round of the 1997 Italian Open in Rome and his first on a hard court over the 14-time major singles champion since the quarterfinals of the 1991 US Open.

Courier earned $60,000 by winning the title in Charlotte, his ninth career title on the Outback Champions Series, the global tennis circuit for champion tennis players age 30 and over. Courier also earned 800 ranking points to extend his lead as the No. 1 player on the Outback Champions Series.

After splitting the first two sets, the two Hall of Famers played the customary first-to-10 point “Champions” tie-breaker, played in lieu of a third set. Courier clinched victory when Sampras double-faulted at 8-9 in the tie-breaker.

“That last double fault was hard on match point,” said Sampras. “I was serving right into the sun on that one and it hurt a little bit.”

Said Courier, “I wasn’t expecting that match point to end on a double fault. He was going for 110 mph second serves and sometimes he’s good enough to get away with that serve.”

During their ATP careers, Sampras and Courier played a total of 20 times, Sampras winning on 16 occasions, including the Wimbledon final in 1993. Sampras won their only previous meeting on the Outback Champions Series, a 6-2, 6-4 win in round-robin play during the 2007 event in Athens, Greece.

“I think he was having a hard time picking up my serve at the beginning,” said Sampras, who earned $30,000 for the runner-up showing. “Eventually he got there and started predicting it. Jim’s a guy who’s always going to compete and I knew that once we started the second set. I knew he was going to compete for that second set. I had a few chances in that tiebreaker and just couldn’t get it. It was disappointing.”

Due to weekend rains in Charlotte, Courier was forced to play his semifinal match against Todd Martin at 10 am on Sunday, postponed from Saturday evening. Following his 7-5, 6-2 semifinal win over Martin, Courier was able rest until the final with Sampras started at 4 pm, following Martin’s 7-5, 6-2 win over Pat Cash in the event’s third-place match.

“I was pretty relieved when his match point serve went out,” said Courier of the final point of the singles final. “I felt flat in the first set. I thought I’d be loose, but my legs felt tight and lethargic. I definitely got more boost in my legs and my serve really started to click. If my serve clicks I can hang in the match.”

The loss marked only the second time that Sampras has been defeated on the Outback Champions Series since joining the circuit in 2007. In 2008, he lost to John McEnroe 2-6, 7-5 10-4 (Champions Tie-breaker) in round-robin play in Boston.

Sampras won the opening event on the 2009 Outback Champions Series, defeating McEnroe in the final of the Champions Cup Boston in February.

McEnroe won the second event of the year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, defeating Courier in the final. Sampras won his second title of the year at the Del Mar Development Champions Cup in Los Cabos, Mexico, defeating Rafter in the final. Courier won his first title of the 2009 season in April at the Cayman Islands, defeating Arias in the final. Cash successfully defended his title on the grass courts at the Hall of Fame Champions Cup in Newport, R.I. in August, defeating Courier in the final. Following Charlotte, the next event on the Outback Champions Series will be held in Surprise, Ariz., where Andre Agassi will make his debut Oct. 8-11.

Founded in 2005, the Outback Champions Series features some of the biggest names in tennis over the last 25 years, including Andre Agassi, Sampras, McEnroe, Courier and others. To be eligible to compete on the Outback Champions Series, players must have reached at least a major singles final, been ranked in the top five in the world or played singles on a championship Davis Cup team. The Outback Champions Series features seven events on its 2009 schedule with each event featuring $150,000 in prize money as well as Champions Series points that will determine the year-end Champions Rankings No. 1.

InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a New York City-based independent producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Outback Champions Series, a collection of tennis events featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, charity events, corporate outings and tennis fantasy camps such as the annual “Ultimate Fantasy Camp”. Through 2008, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment events have raised over $4 million for charity. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or www.ChampionsSeriesTennis.com.