Pete Sampras punched holes in a British fantasy with the fastest serves at Wimbledon, and Goran Ivanisevic curbed his stormy temper to win a "horror thriller" Friday and set up a second clash for the title.
Sampras, seeking to tie Bjorn Borg's Open-era men's mark of five Wimbledon championships, crushed aces from 136 mph in the first set to 134 mph on match point to take out England's Tim Henman, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.Ivanisevic, a two-time finalist who lost to Sampras in the 1994 title match, outlasted 1996 champion Richard Krajicek in a thunderous, 70-ace serving duel, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (7-5), 15-13.
"You know he's going to hit his aces, he's going to hit his double faults," Sampras said of the prospect of playing Ivanisevic on Sunday. "You're going to have to ride the wave with Goran."
Ivanisevic is weary of hearing himself called the greatest player who's never won a major title. He's joked about his wild matches - he served 37 aces in the 1992 Wimbledon final he lost to Andre Agassi - but he desperately wants to win this time.
"I'm really keeping my mind well and believing I can do it this year," said Ivanisevic, who flung his racket crosscourt and 12 rows up in the stands to celebrate his victory.
"I think I have a good chance. He's going to be nervous like me. He's going for the record. I'm going for my first one. We both want to win badly. There's just maybe a slight advantage that he knows how it is to feel that victory. He was holding this trophy four times."
On a gray day of a tournament that had been bereft of compelling men's matches, the two semifinals produced tennis of the highest quality and were won by players who had been struggling through their worst years.
Sampras, shut out of Grand Slam finals since he captured Wimbledon last year, faced a player in the No. 12 Henman who is at his best on grass and who had the Centre Court crowd roaring for him on every point. No British man had won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and Henman came into this match confident that he could break the jinx.
British fans bought into that fantasy, backing Henman at the betting parlors, and the nation looked to him to soothe its wounded pride over England's loss this week in the World Cup. The stakes gave the match the aura of a heavyweight title fight.
"Not only was I battling Tim, the crowd was very tough," said Sampras, who looked edgy and tense throughout, arguing with the umpire more than usual and tossing a cracked racket high into the stands.
"I was very intense, and you have to be at this level and at this stage in the tournament. . . . Obviously I was going to show a little more emotion than usual."
Sampras' game is built around his serve, and in the first set he came close to perfection as he held three times at love and delivered a 136 mph ace that was faster than Ivanisevic's previous best of the tournament, 133 mph.
But it was not all power. Sampras, who practices often with Henman and occasionally plays doubles with him, returned well and finessed his way to breaks in the seventh and ninth games of the set as he strung together four straight winning games.
Henman finally found ways to pressure Sampras with angled returns and passes as he broke him twice for a 4-1 lead in the second set and went on to tie the match at a set apiece.
"I dug my heels in a little bit, created some opportunities, hit some good returns at 1-1, and got ahead," Henman said. "That obviously gave me a lot of confidence, and I built on that. A set all, going with serve in the third, it's anyone's match. But at 5-6, he was the one who came up with the goods."
The goods Sampras produced virtually gave him the match. With Henman serving at 30-30, Sampras sprang a few feet into the air for an overhead smash that bounced into the stands for the first of three set points. Henman survived the first two but not the third, which Sampras notched with a brilliant backhand volley crosscourt. Sampras followed that up with a blistering backhand crosscourt pass that Henman barely reached.
It was the only break of the third set, and Sampras leaped to celebrate.
"When I won the third set, I knew I had him," Sampras said.
The fans kept hoping for a miracle, but Henman was at Sampras' mercy. As well as the 23-year-old from Oxford played, Sampras played better. Serving to close out the match, Sampras showed he wasn't the least bit weary as he whacked a 133 mph ace for 40-0 and, two points later, a 134 mph ace, his 16th, for the match.