ATHENS (Greece): Pete Sampras relied on a still powerful serve to defeat Todd Martin 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 on Sunday in the Athens Champions Cup final.

Sampras fired two aces in the opening game, and continued to serve and volley crisply while breaking Martin in the fourth game to go 3-1 up. After a rain delay Sampras held serve easily, and finished off the set with two aces. But Martin, an Australian and US Open finalist, came back in the second set, breaking Sampras in the fourth and sixth games while holding at love two straight games to lead 5-1 before serving out. In the seesaw tiebreaker – used in Champions Series matches instead of a third set – Martin fell behind 3-0 before winning the next four points. Sampras then served four straight aces to lead 7-4, followed by two crosscourt winners. Martin hit long to give Sampras the title.

“The second set I didn’t think I played that poorly, he came up with some unbelievable returns,” Sampras said. “He was sort of leaning and guessing in a certain way, and he was guessing right. I finally got a good rhythm at the right time.” Martin, who lost narrowly to Sampras two weeks ago in the final in Boston, said his opponent “plays awfully well still.” Sampras’ victory was his second in two Outback Champions Series events this month – his first competitive outings in nearly five years.

“I feel really good, I played quite well. I have a few things still left in the game,” said Sampras, a 14-time major winner. “It’s special being here, seeing my heritage,” said Sampras, whose mother was born in Greece. “I plan on being back.” Sampras played twice Sunday because of bad weather that regularly interrupted this tournament. He earlier beat Jim Courier 6-2, 6-4 in a postponed round-robin match, racing to a 4-0 lead before holding off his former Davis Cup teammate to win Group A. Also Sunday, Magnus Larsson defeated Wayne Ferreira 6-4, 7-5 to take third place. Larsson fired off numerous aces and winners while breaking service once in each set. After threatening Ferreira’s serve two games running in the second set, the big-hitting Swede finally broke him in the 11th, then served out at love. “I played very well all week, I felt very good,” said Larsson, who was part of Sweden’s winning 1997 Davis Cup squad. This was the first international event for the US-based tour, now in its second season. ap