Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971, in Washington, DC), is a former World No. 1 Greek-American tennis player. He is considered by many to be the greatest male tennis player of all time, having won a record 14 Grand Slam men's singles titles and finished the year as No. 1 on the ATP world rankings for a record six consecutive years. He won the men's singles title at Wimbledon a record seven times. He also won the US Open five times and the Australian Open twice. However the one major championship which eluded him was the French Open.

Tennis career
From an early age, Sampras showed signs of outstanding athletic ability. The young Sampras discovered a tennis racquet in the basement of his home and spent hours hitting balls against the wall. In 1978, the Sampras family moved to Palos Verdes, California, and the warmer climate there allowed seven-year-old Pete to play more tennis. The Sampras family joined the Peninsula Racquet Club, where they played a great deal of tennis together. It was here that Pete's ability became apparent. At the age of 11 he had already learned the solid serve and volley tactic that would become the hallmark of his game.

Sampras turned professional in 1988 at the age of 17. He won his first top-level singles title in February 1990 at Philadelphia. In August that year, he captured his first Grand Slam title at the US Open. He defeated Ivan Lendl in the quarter-finals and John McEnroe in the semi-finals, to set-up a final showdown with another up-and-coming American player, Andre Agassi. Sampras beat Agassi in straight sets to become the US Open's youngest-ever male singles champion at the age of 19 years and 28 days. The rivalry between Agassi and Sampras was to become the dominant rivalry in tennis in the 1990s.

1991 saw Sampras capture the first of five career titles at the year-end ATP Tour World Championships. In 1992, he finished runner-up at the US Open and played on the US team which won the Davis Cup (he would help the US win the cup again in 1995).

In April 1993, Sampras reached the World No. 1 ranking for the first time. His rise to the No. 1 spot was controversial at the time as he was not the current holder of any of the Grand Slam titles. But he justified the ranking three months later by claiming his first title at Wimbledon, beating former World No. 1 Jim Courier in the final. This was swiftly followed by his second US Open title. He finished the year as the clear No. 1 and set a new ATP Tour record that year by becoming the first player to serve over 1000 aces in a season.

Sampras dominated Wimbledon for the rest of the decade following his breakthrough title in 1993. He won three consecutive titles in 1993-95. He had a surprise quarter-final loss in 1996 to Richard Krajicek, who went on to win the title that year. Sampras then followed this by winning four consecutive titles in 1997-2000, to become the most succesful male player in Wimbledon history. His win in 2000 also allowed him to break Roy Emerson's record of 12 Grand Slam men's singles titles.

Sampras best surface was undoubtedly the fast-playing grass courts. However he was also known for his good all-round game and a strong competitive instinct. He won back-to-back US Open titles in 1995-96. He also won the Australian Open twice in 1994 and 1997. Sampras' only real weakness was on clay courts, where the slow surface tended to negate his natural attacking serve-and-volley game. His best performance at the French Open came in 1996, when he reached the semi-finals, and his failure to win that title is the one blemish on his otherwise exceptionally impressive career record.

After winning Wimbledon in 2000 Sampras did not win another title for two years. He reached the US Open final in 2000 and 2001, but defeats to young up-and-coming players Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt led many to speculate that Sampras would never capture another major title. But he had one more surprise up his sleeve. Despite being written off by sports commentators after a poor summer, Sampras made an amazing comeback at the 2002 US Open. That tournament was notable because his Third round opponent Greg Rusedski, whom Sampras had dispatched in a grueling 5-set match, made unsportsmanlike comments calling Sampras "a half-step slow". Contrary to Rusedski's predictions that Sampras would lose the next match, Sampras defeated two young and upcoming stars of the game, Tommy Haas in the fourth round and Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals, to reach his third straight US Open final. This time he faced Andre Agassi, who he'd met in his very first Grand Slam final 12 years earlier. After a four-set battle between the two veterans, Sampras emerged the victor and claimed a record 14th Grand Slam title. The tournament was the last of Sampras' career. He played no tour events in the following 12 months, and officially announced his retirement in August 2003.

During his career, Sampras won 64 top-level singles titles and two doubles titles. He was ranked the World No. 1 for a record 286 weeks, and was the year-end No. 1 for a record six consecutive years from 1993 to 1998.