by Joey Papania
LSUsports.net
Andy Warhol once said that every person has his or her five minutes of fame. LSU head tennis coach Jeff Brown‘s five minutes came at the U.S. Open in 1990. He, and doubles partner Scott Melville, beat a pair of future No. 1s, Pete Sampras and his partner, Jim Courier.
Not a bad tale to tell the grandkids.
Brown completed his tennis eligibility at LSU in 1988. He returned and finished school the following year before staying on to assist then-LSU head coach Jerry Simmons. The following February, Brown underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, after which he began his career on the pro tour.
The Iowa native began playing a few Satellite tour events, which would qualify him and Melville for the next level, the Challengers. After a successful stint at the Challengers, the next step for the recent college graduates was the Volvo Classic in New Haven, Connecticut. Before entering the tournament, the two were barely ranked in the top 400 among doubles teams.
In the first round at New Haven, Brown and Melville faced and defeated Andres Gomez and partner. Gomez had just won the French Open and was currently ranked No. 4 in the world. The second round brought Patrick McEnroe and Jim Grabb, but another victory advanced Brown and Melville to the quarterfinals. Pete Sampras’ coach, Paul Annecone, and David Wheaton were the next obstacle before a shot at the semis. Not to be deterred, Brown and Melville continued their run and went on to face the number one ranked doubles team in the world and U.S. Davis Cup doubles tandem of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh.
But they were not to be stopped as they dispatched the top American team. Then a championship victory over Goran Ivanesevic and Petr Korda helped propel Brown and Melville into the top 100.
“The significance of those tournaments is that we were able to get over our star-struck period,” said Brown. “We were also running out of funds to play. It was very important to us how we were doing in the doubles. Many the singles players play doubles merely to practice or just to have fun. For us, it was very important because we were at a point where our doubles ranking was so much higher than our singles ranking. We became doubles specialists.”
In the following week, the two-some traveled to Long Island and reached the semi-finals capturing another victory over Ivanesevic and his partner Sergei Brugerra. The jump in the rankings helped them into the U.S. Open. Good news. They opened the tournament with a first round match-up against Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. Bad news.
“I remember thinking what a difficult draw that was for us because Pete (Sampras) had been playing well, and Courier had already established a name for himself,” explained Brown. “There were a few people from Baton Rouge there to support us, but we were playing the USA darlings at the time. People knew they had a real future, and we were just kids out of college trying to scrape up a few bucks in doubles.”
Sampras was ranked No. 12 at the Open that year, but had not won a grand slam…yet.
“Anytime you play those guys it draws more attention to what you’re doing, because they don’t know who you are,” recalls Brown. “In fact, the umpire pronounced my name wrong. I think he called me Jimmy Brown, and my partner had to correct him. To play guys like that was always special because it drew attention to the fact that we were actually good players. People assume that by beating those types of players you must be pretty good. Maybe you wouldn’t beat them in singles, but it proves you’re at a good level of tennis.”
The match didn’t start in Brown’s favor. They lost the first set 6-4 and never really got close to breaking Sampras. But they would battle back to take the second set, 6-4, breaking Courier once, late in the second set. In the third, the two were able to break Courier twice while being broken once themselves.
“Scott and I were talking about how well (Sampras) was serving,” said Brown. “He was painting the lines up the T, and he was going out wide. It was ridiculous.”
A little over a week later, Sampras won his first Grand Slam singles title at the end of that tournament. Last week at the All-England Club, Sampras claimed the Wimbledon title, his record setting 13th Grand Slam singles victory. But it was no surprise to Brown and Melville. In fact, Brown modestly takes credit for springboarding Sampras to stardom.
“Sure. Let’s say that. It could have changed history if he would have beaten us, because in the third round he would have had to play his coach Paul Annecone,” Brown said jokingly. “You never know what might have happened.
“It was fun for us. I’m sure he doesn’t remember the match. But I remember it pretty well, and that’s all that really matters.”