This year’s outcome at the Tennis Masters Series in Cincinnati was somewhat unexpected. Gustavo Kuerten, fought his way through the tournament and past Patrick Rafter in the finals with outstanding groundstrokes and steady play. However, he had a helping hand from above: weather.

Temperatures in the mid-eighties and nineties with humidity as high as 100 percent during the tournament means not only the threat of heat exhaustion for tennis players, but it also means the ball will bounce differently, therefore changing the way the game is played.

Andre Agassi, the No. 2-seed, who lost in the first round, said to coach Brad Gilbert during his match that he couldn’t control the ball. After the match he told reporters that the ball was coming high off the racquet.

“I felt like, every time I pulled my racket back it was just like a live wire,” Agassi said.

In the second round No. 9-seed Pete Sampras lost and said one of the reasons he lost was a lack of ball control.

“I’ve kind of been having a hard time keeping the ball in the court,” Sampras said. “Even when I played Lapentti, it’s just like, wow, things are jumping all over the place. I don’t know if it is the ball, or what it is.”

Albert Martin, who defeated Sampras, said after the match, “It’s like playing in hell.”

Sampras said these kind of conditions favor a player who strings a loose racquet and hits with a lot of spin. Todd Martin, who also lost in the second round, believes the hot weather made the ball fly a lot more and makes the courts a bit quicker.

“These courts, at 75 degrees, I think would promote some pretty good tennis,” Martin said. “However, at 95 in the air and then maybe 15 or 20 more degrees for being out on the court, the court speeds up, the ball speeds up. And we’re stringing our rackets at ungodly tensions, just so we can slow the ball up a little bit.”

Martin said players are forced to move farther behind the baseline than normal in order to slow down play. Topspin is also an option but increases the margin of error. The only other alternative is to have both players take pace off the ball and play a slower game which is what happened in his match against Nicholas Kiefer.

Finalist Patrick Rafter disagreed. For him, it was an issue of the best player to adapt to the conditions.

“There’s nothing wrong with the ball,” Rafter said. “It’s quick and flying, but you got to get used to it. If it’s good for me, it should be good for Pete, as well.”

As a matter of fact, weather and surface conditions have contributed to the success of both Agassi and Sampras on a number of occasions. Agassi was aided in 1999 winning the French Open by a lack of rain fall, therefore causing the courts to speed up and favor Agassi’s speedy groundstrokes. Sampras, who has won Wimbledon seven times, has had the advantage of a huge serve and hefty groundstrokes that enable him to dominate on the grass courts.

Tennis fans in Cincinnati were treated to an unexpected surprise this year-a different type of tennis.