Woodruff upsets Sampras

Top-seed Pete Sampras, playing for the first time since losing in the fourth round of last month's Australian Open, was upset by unseeded Chris Woodruff in the Kroger St. Jude tournament on Wednesday.

Sampras, winner of 13 Grand Slam tournaments, lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 to Woodruff, a Tennessee native who had not beaten Sampras in three previous attempts.

After dropping a first-set tiebreaker, Sampras went down easily. He was broken at love to open the second set, beaten by a trio of Woodruff return winners. Woodruff broke him again in the seventh game.

"It's got to be right up there with some of my biggest wins," Woodruff said. "I don't know if I ever thought I had it won. I have a lot of respect for Pete. I can appreciate what he's done in tennis. I just made some stance adjustments on my return and I got on a roll."

Sampras' loss prevented a third-round pairing between Goran Ivanisevic and Sampras in a rematch of two previous Wimbledon finals.

Sampras, playing in Memphis for the first time since winning the event in 1996, said he felt match fit despite playing only one event this year and thought he started strong. But he let a questionable out call on what he thought was an ace affect him late in the first set and Woodruff broke back to tie the match at 5-all.

"I give Chris a lot of credit," Sampras said. "He returned my serves well. At this point, it's a tough loss for me. I got a tough call at 5-4 and 15-love and it led to a tough service game and then kind of kind of got on my serve."

Sampras said Woodruff played a great second set and got into a zone.

"He really caught me off guard in the first game of the second set," Sampras said.

Top seeds advancing Wednesday included No. 3 Tommy Haas and No. 6 Michael Chang.

In another second-round upset, Canadian doubles specialist Sebastien Lareau, whose crowning moment last year was winning the doubles gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, made a singles statement.

Lareau, ranked 117th in singles at the end of last year, upset No. 4 seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in a second-round match at the $800,000 ATP tour event.

Lareau, 27, overcame a sluggish start and served well over the final two sets to force the tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Lareau got up a mini-break to go up 2-0 on a forehand volley winner and added another mini-break to go ahead 5-2 when a Lapentti forehand sailed long. He won the match by smashing a deep overhead that Lapentti could not return.

"It was a great win," Lareau said. "The beginning of the year has been rough. I came in here with not much confidence. I was the last guy (to gain direct entry into the main draw). I really thought I was going to have to play qualifying."

Lareau said he was concerned before the tiebreaker because Lapentti was serving well, too.

But Lareau went up 2-0 and immediately gained a renewed confidence. He had lost five matches in third-set tiebreakers last year.

Lapentti, the No. 1 player in Ecuador and a former top 10, is winless in four career matches at the indoor courts at The Racquet Club.

Lareau advanced to the third round where he'll face qualifier Scott Draper, a 7-6 (10-8), 6-2 winner over 15th seed Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea.

In other second-round play, 16th seed Magnus Gustafsson, the 34-year-old Swede, advanced with a 1-6 7-5 6-4 victory over American teenager Mardy Fish.

Gustafsson, playing for the first time in Memphis, said it was the type match he hasn't won much during a 17-year career that will end this year.

Gustafsson fell behind in the second set, but used his experience to outlast the hard-hitting Fish, in his second year on the tour.

"I've been in that situation before," Gustafsson said. "I'm 34, this is my 17th year on the tour, but I didn't think it was going to happen because I couldn't hit my best shot, my forehand. I won a mental match."