The 'Hit for Haiti' at Indian Wells on Friday night raised $1 million to help victims of the country's earthquake, with eight of the game's legends taking part in what was a lighthearted exhibition -- until one of Andre Agassi's barbs got under Pete Sampras' skin.
The evening began with a women's doubles that featured 50 Grand Slam singles titles on court as Martina Navratilova and Justine Henin teamed to defeat Steffi Graf and Lindsay Davenport. They were followed out by a 44-Grand Slam quartet as Pete Sampras and Roger Federer took on Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal, though at one stage the match seemed to be all about Sampras vs. Agassi.
The players all wore microphone headsets -- a common feature in exhibition matches. Agassi's mock trashtalking and Federer's game responses quickly became an enlivening feature of the contest. "Partner -- stop hitting the ball to Roger Federer," Agassi told Nadal early on. "When are you going to take off your long pants?" Federer asked Agassi..
About halfway through, however, Agassi shifted his focus to Sampras, saying, "You always have to get serious huh, Pete?"
"Okay, Andre, I'll joke round a little bit," said Sampras, proceeding to imitate Agassi's famous pigeon-toed walk.
"I want to impersonate you," replied Agassi, pulling out his pockets. "'I don't have any money... Oh, wait, I have a dollar.'"
In his autobiography published last year, Agassi had characterized Sampras as a poor tipper after seeing him give a valet driver a dollar tip at Indian Wells one year.
Sampras, who had earlier expressed disappointment over the remarks in Agassi's book, was visibily irritated by the on-court jibe, even saying at one point, "Wow, you got personal."
Federer and Nadal appeared uncomfortable with the sudden change in atmosphere, with Federer trying to break the tension by joking to Nadal, "This rivalry's intense, man."
But the jousting continued as Sampras aimed a serve at Agassi, who ducked and then quipped, "It's better than being a valet driver when you pull up." Sampras muttered something about "baggage," saying, "Here we go. I'm a bad tipper. I'm sorry, Barack Obama."
The exchanges cast a pall over the contest, with the flow of conversation dropping noticeably therest of the way. "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt," Agassi aptly remarked.
Sampras and Agassi hugged at net when the match was over and tried to make light of the incident in the postmatch interview, but did not take part in the press conference after the event.
Tournament owner Larry Ellison ended the night on a positive note, saying that continuing donations should see the total amount of money raised top the $1 million figure announced Friday night.