Americans Pete Sampras and Todd Martin have reached the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters with victories over Rainer Schuettler and Yevgeny Kafelnikov respectively.
Sampras eased past Schuettler 6-2 6-4 while Martin had a little more to do to oust Kafelnikov 7-6 6-4. Thirteen-time Grand Slam winner Sampras will now play his US Open conqueror Leyton Hewitt, with Martin facing Britain’s Tim Henman.
"I'm looking forward to playing him. The Open was a tough defeat, I had worked hard to get there. He played a great match but as time goes on you have to back it up, and it seems like he's been backing it up pretty well the last couple of months. He's playing with a lot of confidence,” Sampras said of Hewitt.
The Australian was similarly generous in his praise of Sampras. "You can never write Pete off. He'll probably be looking to get some revenge for the U.S. Open final. But it's not something I focus on playing Andre or Sampras, one of the greatest players ever to live. I think you get up within yourself because you know you've got to be up playing those guys because if you're even slightly off, they're going to make you look silly out there,” he said.
Filed by Tom Grealis
