Generali Open 1992: When Olympia brought Sampras and Courier to Kitzbühel
In 2024, the Olympic Games will again be held in Roland Garros for tennis professionals. A week after the Generali Open. In 1992, a similar constellation brought two superstars to Kitzbühel.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Mar 24, 2023, 09:33 am
The announcement of the ATP calendar for the coming year did not immediately lead to spontaneous outbursts of joy among those responsible in Umag and Kitzbühel. If it goes according to the wishes of the ATP, then the finals should take place on Friday - because the Olympic tennis tournament starts on Saturday in Roland Garros. Further discussions are necessary here, a solution can be found.
Looking back at the not-so-young past, positive things can also be seen in the schedule of events, as they are in the Olympic year 2024. Because the approaching struggle for Olympic medals has already led to two men starting in Kitzbühel, who under normal circumstances ended their clay court season after the final day of the French Open: Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.
Courier and Sampras with difficult opening games
In 1992 the Olympic Games were held in Barcelona. And the two Americans thought it was the right idea to warm up for this task in Kitzbühel. That almost went haywire: Courier, seeded number one at the Generali Open that year, was eliminated in the first match against Diego Perez after a bye.
Sampras almost felt the same way: Pistol Pete had to go into a tiebreak in the third set against German Lopez-Montoya. And, who was there, will be able to remember: At match point for the Spaniard, a ball from Sampras just dribbled into the field. However, that should also have been the last time that the 14-time major champion at the end of his career had problems during the 92 tournament. With wins over Tomas Carbonell, Marcelo Filippini and Gabriel Markus, Sampras reached the final where he righteously and effortlessly defeated Alberto Mancini. Incidentally, still in best-of-five format.
Muster, Skoff, Antonitsch in the tableau
The tableau in 1992 was also exceptionally well filled apart from the global superstars Courier and Sampras: with Thomas Muster, for example, who started the race in fourth place and only lost to Mancini in the semifinals. With Horst Skoff and today's tournament director Alexander Antonitsch, the other two Austrians who formed the three red-white-red musketeers in those years also played.
So if a few players decide to work on their clay court form a little before the Olympic Games in the coming year, then Kitzbühel 2024 is a good choice. However: Jim Courier and Pete Sampras didn't help it to Olympic honors before 32 years. Courier lost in the round of 16 to eventual Olympic champion Marc Rosset in three sets, Sampras in the same round to Russian Andrej Cherkassov in five sets.