Biography | Career Highlights

Grand Slam No. 14: US Open, 2002

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Headline news and press conference (Part 1)

• Sampras wins one for the aged (Washington Times)
• Old man and the court: Sampras draws on glory past (IHT)
• Pete Sampras: a U.S. Open champ once more
• Boys to Men
• Victory and Redemption for Sampras
• Fifth title earns Sampras an Open embrace
• Sampras cements legacy (CNNSI)
• Sampras shows he's still master (AP)
• Sampras validates greatness with another Slam (USA Today)
• Sampras ends doubts in Open (NY Times)
• A duel fit for New York (NY Times)
• Post match press conference
• Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Sampras Wins One for the Aged
By Patrick Hruby-Washington Times

September 9, 2002 NEW YORK - This one was for the eulogists. This was for the mockers, the nay sayers, the ditch-digging doubters dumping fresh dirt onto Pete Sampras' still-open professional grave. The foes who counseled retirement. The knuckle heads who said he's lost a step (or two). The fans who showered him with the sort of pleading, sympathetic applause usually reserved for underdogs and lost causes.

Of course, this one was for Sampras, too.

In a performance culled from his seemingly long-departed prime, Sampras topped old rival Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the U.S. Open final yesterday at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"This one might take the cake," said Sampras, who won his first tournament in two years and his first Open title since 1996. "To get through adversity means a lot."

With the victory, the 31-year-old Sampras captured his fifth Open title and his 14th Grand Slam, adding to his all-time record.

Shredded in the last two Open finals by youngsters Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt, Sampras also delivered the strongest message yet that he will walk away from the game in an hour - and in a manner - of his choosing. "To beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament, a storybook ending, it might be nice to stop," Sampras said. "But I still want to compete. I want to play."

Billed as the latest - and perhaps the last - edition in the long and storied Sampras-Agassi rivalry, the match was as much a referendum on Sampras' sagging fortunes, his deep decline following a decade of dominance. Title-less for the longest stretch of his career, his confidence shaken by a string of humiliating losses, his aura as faded as his patchy hairline, Sampras came into the tournament as a No.17 seed, his lowest entry position since 1989.

"There were moments where I was struggling to continue to play," he said.

	“	I've done too much in the game to hear negative things and start believing them. I still felt like I had one more moment - maybe a couple of moments - and that's what happened today.”
		—Pete Sampras

Against Agassi, however, Sampras looked nothing like the creaky veteran who lost to someone named Paul Henri-Mathieu in the first round of a pre-Open warmup tournament - and far more like the serve-and-volley maestro who bullied would-be successor Andy Roddick in a quarterfinal spanking. Trademark running forehands. Sharp volleys. Even a handful of backhand winners down the line. Early on, the old Sampras gifts were all accounted
for, unwrapped and fresh.

Above all was his serve: smothering, overpowering, largely untouchable. Sampras reached into the Wayback Machine for 33 aces and over a dozen service winners ? down the line, out wide, one at 132 mph, his fastest delivery of the tournament.

"I was having a hard time getting onto [his serve], getting off the mark, making any sort of impact at all," Agassi said. "I think he sensed that, and it was allowing him to play pretty loose on his return games. At that point, he was solidly better."

That said, Sampras slowed considerably in the third. Serving to force a tiebreaker, Sampras staggered to four deuce points against Agassi's shoestring returns; on the fifth, Sampras double-faulted, then dropped the set on a tight forehand volley that failed to clear the tape.

That gave Agassi - clearly fatigued from his draining semifinal duel with world No.1 Hewitt - new life. With Sampras down 2-1 and serving in the fourth set, Agassi forced a 20-point game, the longest of the match. Twice, Agassi earned break points, once on a double fault and again on a hustling forehand lob save; two times, Sampras responded with points at the net before taking the game with a pair of forehand volleys. "I felt like I still had a little ways to go to secure the momentum," Agassi said of winning the third set. "I had a few break points [in the fourth] and I didn't do it. And that turned out to get me."

After saving another break point to make it 4-4 ? this time with an overhead and an ace wide ? Sampras turned the tables. He pushed Agassi to two breaks, then captured a third by placing a forehand return just inside the baseline, one that Agassi couldn't dig out.

Serving for the title, Sampras jumped to triple match point on a gutsy 119-mph second serve down the middle; following an Agassi winner, he closed the match with a backhand volley."It all worked out," Sampras said. "So much of what I was going through this year was mental. It wasn't forehands and backhands and serves. It was in my head."

In a sense, things have come full circle for Sampras. As a skinny, unheralded 19-year-old, he upset the 20-year-old Agassi for his first major title at the 1990 Open.

Since then, Sampras has become the greatest player of his era, a seven-time Wimbledon winner whose classical playing style helped him break Roy Emerson's career record of 12 Grand Slams and spend six straight years ranked No.1 in the world.

Along the way, Sampras engaged in a spirited rivalry with Agassi - Sampras leads the series 20-14 - including a clash in last year's Open quarterfinals that is widely considered to be one of best matches ever played.

Still, time passes; so too did the game seem to pass Sampras by. There was the two-year title drought. The straight set skunkings in the last two Open finals. Three coaches since January. A humiliating loss to Swiss journeyman George Bastl at Wimbledon.

Following a third-round loss to Sampras, loudmouthed Brit Greg Rusedski - who has never won a tournament of consequence - had the gall to predict that Sampras wouldn't win another match, adding that his opponent had lost "a step-and-a-half."

"I've done too much in the game to hear negative things and start believing them," Sampras said. "I still felt like I had one more moment - maybe a couple of moments - and that's what happened today."

When it was over, Agassi hugged Sampras at the net, offering a "good job." Sampras clambered into the stands, embracing his expecting wife, Bridgette -whom he credits as a major source of emotional support - and exchanging high-fives with spectators.

"[Sampras´] game is able to raise itself at the right time," said Agassi, the man who has always known best. "While the discipline and the daily grind of what it takes to be at the top has obviously gotten tougher for him, there's still a danger in the way he plays and how good he is.
Anybody who says something different is really ignorant."

As Sampras raised his arms in triumph following match point - taking in the moment, basking in title that few thought possible - that much was obvious.

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Old Man and the Court: Sampras Draws on Glory Past
Source: International Herald Tribune

The greatest men's tennis player in history sat in the president's box early at the United States Open, watching his closest pursuer narrow the gap. While the men in blue blazers and women in evening wear waved their wine coolers and shouted their delight at what Pete Sampras was accomplishing on the court below, Sampras's role model, Rod Laver, remained calmly in his chair - his dexterous hands folded neatly in front of him - and gazed intently and silently as Sampras won the U.S. Open for his 14th Grand Slam title.
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Laver, an Australian and the only player to complete two Grand Slams, had tossed the coin before this unexpected, much-appreciated final and then somewhat sheepishly posed with Sampras and Andre Agassi for a photograph. You are a tennis legend forever, but Laver did not want to intrude. He knows his time is over, and until this tournament, it seemed Sampras's time was over, too.
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He had not won a title in more than two years. He had lost his confidence; lost his devastating rhythm on his remarkable serve; lost his way and, seemingly, his relevance. But he did not, would not lose in New York, and on Sunday, playing on the same grounds and against the same opponent as when he burst to prominence as a skinny 19-year-old champion in 1990, Sampras turned up his game and turned back the clock to beat Agassi once more by the score of 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
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It was a nostalgia-drenched moment and when it concluded, after nearly three hours, with a straightforward backhand volley cross-court, the 31-year-old Californian showed how much his life, if not his tennis, has changed by climbing into the stands to embrace his wife, Bridgette Wilson, who is pregnant with their first child.
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"I never thought anything would surpass what happened at Wimbledon a couple years ago," Sampras said. "But the way I've been going this year, to kind of come through this and play the way I did today, it was awesome. I peaked at the right time against Andre."
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Agassi has long inspired him to climb. Agassi, with his remarkable groundstrokes and reflexes, has dominated Sampras at times, but, in general, he has been a fine, charismatic foil who has long been better at analyzing and explaining their rivalry than the less articulate, more introverted Sampras.
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Asked if he had ever thought Sampras was finished, Agassi responded: "I've said the same thing for years now; that his game is able to raise itself at the right time. While the discipline and the daily grind of what it takes to be the best have obviously gotten tougher for him, there's still danger in the way he plays and how good he is. Anybody that says something different is really ignorant. They don't understand the game of tennis, because Pete has a lot of weapons out there."
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What is less obvious than the whip in his forehand or the potential for power and precision in Sampras's wickedly difficult-to-read serve is the reason why he pushed himself to this latest high.
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After finishing No. 1 for a record six consecutive years, from 1993 to 1998, and then breaking the record for Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon in 2000, there were no major goals left beyond winning the French Open, which has long seemed beyond his reach because of his discomfort on clay. But Sampras still enjoyed playing the game; still enjoyed the adrenaline rush of competing in majors. So he decided to reduce his schedule and play well into his 30s.

	“	There's still danger in the way he plays and how good he is. Anybody that says something different is really ignorant. They don't understand the game of tennis, because Pete has a lot of weapons out there. ”
		Andre Agassi

But as the victories stopped coming, Sampras lost his ability to intimidate. Younger men who will never challenge him in the history books were soon beating him with regularity. This year at Wimbledon, he lost in the second round to a Swiss qualifier, George Bastl. On changeovers during that match, Sampras sought inspiration in a letter from his wife and when even that most uncharacteristic tactic failed, he sat - disconsolate and adrift - on his chair before leaving Court Two.
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"It was just an empty feeling," he said of his trip home to California. "I was working so hard; I was doing all the right things. It wasn't clicking. I had a little anxiety creeping in."
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At least it was obvious that he still cared: someone who did not would not have changed coaches three times in a year. If he was lacking motivation after winning No. 13, at least he now had incentive again: He needed to save his reputation and to prove that he knew much more about his limits than peers and critics who were hinting that he was not doing his career justice by continuing. He might appear mild-mannered, but those who have worked with him over the years agree that he is stubborn.
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"I wanted to stop on my terms; that was one thing I promised myself, even though I was struggling this year and hearing this and that," Sampras said. "I deserved to stop on my own terms, and I've done too much in this game to hear the negative things and start believing it. Because there was a point where I was believing it. But I still felt like I had one more moment; maybe a couple more moments."
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Sampras said he would decide whether to continue in the next "couple of months."
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"To beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the U.S. Open, a storybook ending, it might be nice to stop," he said. "But I still want to compete, you know? I still love to play."
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He has never been known for his sterling practice habits, but five days after coming home from Wimbledon, he called his fitness coach, Brett Stephens, who was still in London, and told him to fly to California because he was ready to start working. The payoff came Sunday, and winning means that Sampras will no longer have to hear that his marriage to Wilson two months after his last Wimbledon title was part of the reason the titles stopped coming.

"That wasn't fair; I just felt like I was at a point in my career that it was a tough place to be after winning 13," he said. "I was happy. I was happy being married. I met the woman of my dreams and now we're going to have a child. That's what life's all about, but she's a big reason why I've been able to get through this tough period. She lives with me every day. Trust me, it's not easy. When you're struggling, not having fun, it's a burden. Just showed me that I met the right woman."

According to the Rudyard Kipling poem on display at Wimbledon, a champion with the right stuff meets with victory and defeat and treats them both the same. Those are pretty words yet daunting to live by. Sampras has not managed it of late. The defeats left Sampras reeling, but this victory, perhaps his finest, left him in a much more comfortable place. Perhaps only another champion could understand just how comfortable. When it ended, and the blue-blazered men leaped to their feet to cheer, Laver remained in his seat, unclasped his hands and clapped slowly and respectfully, his eyes fixed on the American who may not be chasing him much longer.

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Pete Sampras: a US Open Champ Once More
By Howard Ulman, AP

NEW YORK - The tennis champ tossed his racket off the court, walked wearily into the stands and hugged his wife.

Whether Pete Sampras, husband and father to be, picks up his racket again is a mystery as deep as trying to solve his strong, spinning serve.

"I'm sure the next couple of weeks I'll reflect on it and kind of see where I'm at," he said, his mind still reeling from his amazing career revival with Sunday's U.S. Open ( news - web sites) championship.

Andre Agassi didn't have the luxury of time to figure out Sampras' serve - or catch up to it if he did - when the two 30-something Americans thrilled a crowd that rooted for both.

The final cheers were for the once-dominant Sampras, who won his first championship in more than two years, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

"I still want to play. I love to play. But to beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the U.S. Open, a storybook ending," Sampras said. "It might be nice to stop. But ..."

Then the 31-year-old long shot who was seeded 17th smiled.

While he contemplates how the two loves of his life - family and tennis - can coexist, he can savor one of the most gratifying wins of a career in which he beat Agassi in the 1990 and 1995 Open finals and was the top-ranked player from 1993 through 1998.

He won his fifth U.S. Open title and 14th Grand Slam championship, breaking his own record of 13 set at Wimbledon in 2000.

"This might take the cake. This might be my biggest achievement so far to come through a very, very tough time and to win the Open," he said. "I mean, that's pretty sweet."

Sampras hadn't won since that Wimbledon triumph two years ago. He lost the only final he reached in 15 previous events this year. And he was knocked out in the first round at the French Open.

Then he returned to Wimbledon for a second-round disaster against George
Bastl, who played only because another player withdrew.

"It was an empty feeling," Sampras said.

Sunday was full of emotion.

He was playing the 32-year-old Agassi for the 34th time and the winner would be the oldest U.S. Open champion since Ken Rosewall, who was 35 when he won in 1970.

Sampras clenched his fist after breaking serve, making it 5-4 in the fourth set.

A game away from victory, it was time for that big serve, the serve that faded after an astounding 12 aces in the first set.

With Agassi ahead 4-3 in the fourth set, Sampras had three double faults, but saved one break point and held serve. But Agassi didn't expect that serving trouble to continue.

"He senses the important times of a match and puts pressure on you," Agassi said, "then elevates his game."

In the last game, Sampras hit two service winners then a 119 mph (191 kph) ace. With three match points, he got a towel from a ball boy and wiped his face.

The final point was a snapshot of two playing styles - Agassi at the baseline and Sampras serving and rushing.

Agassi hit a forehand from the right corner, but Sampras was in the perfect place at the net. He hit a backhand volley to the other side, out of Agassi's reach.

Sampras thrust both arms up then put a hand on his head. The players embraced at the net.

Then Sampras threw his racket by his courtside chair, turned his back on it and walked across the court and into the stands.

He slapped hands with fans on his way to his sister, coach Paul Annacone and actress Bridgette Wilson, whom he married two months after his last Wimbledon win.

"I met the woman of my dreams and now we're going to have a child," Sampras said. "That's what life's about."

The other celebrity wife, Steffi Graf, watched Agassi start flat, gain momentum late in the third set but never hit enough winners to deny Sampras his day.

"There's still a danger in the way he plays and how good he is," Agassi said. "Anybody that says something different is really ignorant."

Nobody who watched Sunday's match could say that and mean it.

Sampras had 33 aces - one reaching 132 mph - 84 winners and 69 points at the net. Agassi had seven aces, 27 winners and 10 net points. Sampras' aggressive approach led to 46 unforced errors to 21 for Agassi.

The match started with neither player losing a point on his service through four games. But in the eighth game, Sampras broke.

Agassi won the third set when a tiring Sampras netted a forehand on break point.

"I felt like I still had a little ways to go to secure the momentum," he said.

He nearly grabbed it in the fourth game of the fourth set, a 20-point endurance test in which Sampras saved two break points.

"Put him away, Peter!" a fan shouted early in the game. Sampras lost the next point as Agassi made it deuce.

Fans jeered when Sampras showed dissatisfaction with a fault call by putting his hands on his hips then leaning on the net. On the next point, he won the game with a forehand volley, tying the set 2-2. The fans cheered.

"I think a lot of people get support towards the end of their career," Agassi said.

Agassi won four tournaments this year and said he plans to play at least the big events.

Sampras hinted that he might play Wimbledon next year or may never play again. He said coyly that he and Agassi may not meet in another Grand Slam final, "but maybe next year we'll do it again."

Maybe not.

"I could step away from the game and feel really good about what I'd done," Sampraas said. "But I still felt like I had one more moment, maybe a couple more moments."

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Boys to Men
By Sally Jenkins

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - You've known Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi for half their lives now. You've known them since they were boys, with narrow chests and dopey expressions. You've known them at their worst and at their best, their most boorish and
gracious, you've seen their public joys, their clenched-fist victories and hoisted trophies, and you've seen their public embarrassments, their head-hanging chokes and disgraces. You've seen their girlfriends come and go, breakups and divorces. Now you know them as grownups, as fathers and husbands, and above all as adults, and that is what was so satisfying about their U.S. Open final.

It was a meeting of men. Not of rude boys with big strokes and sticky hair. The Lleyton Hewitts and Andy Roddicks will have their day, and in fact it's already here. But this particular day in tennis history belonged to Sampras, 31, and to the longtime rival he bested, the 32-year-old Agassi, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Afterward, you shared an intimate moment with Sampras, when he jogged through the stands to embrace his wife, Bridgette Wilson, who is pregnant with their first child. And you may have felt a pang for Agassi and for his own wife, Steffi Graf, who held their infant son in the stands.

There was no mistaking the familiarity with which the crowds patted Sampras on the back and shook his hand as he made way through the stadium.

You've known him since he was 19, and seen him win 14 Grand Slam titles, the all-time record by two, but you've also seen him pitiable and dispirited as he went winless for the past two years, 26 long months, to be exact, in which he contemplated retirement.

This is what tennis needs more of: adults. Chiefly, it needs more players with whom the audience has developed a relationship, if not affection. Too often we hurry athletes toward retirement; for months now Sampras has been besieged with suggestions in the press and in the locker room that he should hang it up, that he was finished, because his game had lost some luster. The conventional wisdom in any sport, particularly tennis, the sport of child champions and teenaged burnouts, is that he or she should pack it in and preserve the storybook ending. But when we do this we rob the athlete, and we rob ourselves. Had Sampras listened, he would have cheated himself of the title that may be his most rewarding -- both for him and for us. "This might be my biggest achievement so far," he said. It meant, he said: "A lot. More than anything, probably."

Continuous emotional connections with athletes are what make games worth watching, otherwise we might as well be rooting for cardboard cutouts.

Perhaps we'll eventually know Hewitt, 21, and Roddick, 20, but so far they are relatively superficial characters, faint outlines of people. There was a time when we felt the same way about Agassi and Sampras. But now they have history. Actually, they have more than that. "They're on the other side of history," is how Agassi's best friend Perry Rogers put it. They have played their way into a fully mature rivalry; this was their 34th meeting, with Sampras leading 19-14, and it was their fifth grand slam final.

Over the years, they have been a study in opposites, in temperament, in tastes, and in strategy. Agassi is the ground-stroking exhibitionist and, at times, the hedonist who took shortcuts and long breaks between his seven grand slam titles. "My accomplishments do not meet my wealth," he used to joke about himself. This is no longer true; he has managed to become as decorated as he is rich and irreverent, and he also got the girl. Agassi passed the better part of the last two weeks in an obscure rented hideaway in Rye, N.Y., with his wife and their son, Jaden Gil, who is nearly a year old.

Agassi likes to tell this story on himself. A few months ago, he was babysitting while Graf ran a few errands. Agassi decided to trim the boy's lush blond hair. He got out his razor, but forgot to change the setting.

He ran the razor gently along the baby's head, and forged a wide bald stripe down the middle. When Steffi came home, the baby was as bald as his iconoclastic father.

Sampras was always the internalizer, reserved and methodical with the momentum-killing serve-and-volley game, abbreviating every point. His years as the top-ranked player in the world were a matter of grim focus and self-deprivation. But while the achievements were gratifying, other things were not. "I wanted a life," he recently told tennis journalist Joel Drucker.

Sampras now has both a career and a life. The last 26 months, he says, were a matter of mental fatigue, not physical, and the low point was his second-round loss at Wimbledon in June, after which he sat in his chair for long minutes disconsolate, and thought about stopping. "So much of what I was going through was mental," he said. "It wasn't forehands and backhands, it was my head space."

Sampras and Agassi both proved emphatically that age is irrelevant for them with their performances at the Open. Agassi defeated top-ranked Hewitt in four sets in the semifinals. Sampras played five dominant matches in seven days, and showed no sign of tiring. His serving arm was alive as it's ever been against Agassi. "We're still out here doing it, and it's hard to get around that fact," Agassi said.

Sampras served a love game to open the match. A dozen aces later, he had won the first set, 6-3. Only a clawing performance by Agassi, who was flat and not playing at his best -- he clearly peaked against Hewitt in the semifinals -- extended the match to four sets. In the end, Sampras's 33 aces and 84 winners were simply overwhelming, and as persuasive as any match he played in his youth.

And it should put a halt to that talk of retirement. After all, we're finally getting to know him. "It's a storybook ending and it might be nice to stop," Sampras said, "but . . ."

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Victory and Redemption for Sampras
By Adrian Wojnarowski, NorthJersey.com

NEW YORK - Pete Sampras had made his leap over the photographer's pit, climbing the steps of Arthur Ashe Stadium on a search for his wife, and people's hands reached over the aisle to touch him - the way the game's greatest champion had touched them Sunday.

He had never been the people's choice until late in the game, late in his tennis life, and there was Sampras turning a trip to his family's box into something of an impromptu victory lap.

Still, Sampras never stopped. He pushed past everyone, past the backslaps and high fives, past the darkest hour of his professional life to reach the light again. He had won his last Grand Slam - his last tournament - more than two years ago. That Wimbledon victory, the 13th Grand Slam of his career, made him the game's greatest champion. It had inspired a run to his father's arms at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the man forever standing in the shadows and supporting his son's relentless run to be the greatest ever.

That was his run into history in 2000. But Sunday was something else.

This was Pete Sampras' run to redemption.

"I never thought anything would surpass what happened at Wimbledon a couple years ago, but the way I've been going this year, to come through this. ... This might take the cake," Sampras said. "This might be my biggest achievement."

All the way back from 26 months without a title, all the way back from the embarrassment of getting embarrassed out of Wimbledon in July, all the way back from the moments he started to believe the newspaper clippings urging him to retire at 31. On Sunday, he completed the most improbable victory of his life: 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 over Andre Agassi, over the professional disarray and doubts that chased him to the start of this U.S. Open.

Yes, this was a different time for him, a different station in life, and it was fitting that his breathless burst into the stands at the match's end finished in the arms of his pregnant wife, Bridgette. The mother and baby were blamed as the reasons he had lost his edge and his drive, the reason he never, ever had a chance to see himself reach the 14th Grand Slam in the twilight of a Flushing Meadows evening, the twilight of his career.

This was the final scene of romantic comedy, the boy getting the girl and the championship. The kid raised in Hollywood kissed his actress wife and squeezed her tight. The scene played out on the video screen high above the sold-out stadium, the late-Sunday matinee audience standing and cheering with the understanding they'll probably never get an encore.

"To beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the U.S. Open, a storybook ending, it might be nice to stop ... " Sampras confessed. "But I still want to compete, you know? I still love to play. Right now, my head is spinning."

This had been had the hardest of all - No. 14 - requiring Sampras to reach down for something he couldn't be completely sure he still had within him. Across this fortnight, Sampras' booming service stopped betraying him and he sizzled aces at more than 120 miles per hour. Testament to his greatness was the fact that the man standing across the net happens to hold the greatest return of serve in the sport. So, yes, it was stunning to see Sampras' serve exploding past him over and over, leaving Agassi looking as if he were swinging a fly swatter.

Again and again, Sampras pounded Agassi, pushing out to a lead of two sets to none. He lost the third when he started losing steam, and held on for dear life in the fourth set when Agassi delivered the drama to this unforgettable final. When it appeared Agassi could force a fifth set for those tiring, wobbly legs of Sampras, Sampras broke his serve at 4-4 to serve out the match, the championship, the victory against the longest odds of his life.

Everyone tried to tell him the man making his legend on training the hardest, staying No. 1 for an incomparable six straight years, couldn't do it a different way. Everyone tried to tell him he couldn't have the girl and the trophy, contentment, and championships. This was his answer Sunday, his answer for the ages.

"It wasn't fair [to my wife]," Sampras said. "I just felt like I was at a tough place to be after winning 13. I got married two months later. I was happy. I met the woman of my dreams and now we're having a child. That's what life is all about. But she's the big reason why I've been able to get through this tough period."

This could've been goodbye for Sampras on Sunday. As he hugged his wife and 23,000 cheered and that silver trophy waited for him down on the court again, a Hollywood kid considered the possibility he could choose to call this the end.

"To beat a rival like Andre at the U.S. Open, a storybook ending, it might be nice to stop. ... But I still want to compete, you know? I still love to play. Right now, my head's spinning."

Pete Sampras always did do the drama the best, always did save his greatest performances for the most important moments of all. Whatever happens the rest of the way, whatever he decides, the game's greatest champion will always have found his happy ending running into the arms of his wife at the U.S. Open, into the arms of history.

 

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Fifth Title Earns Sampras an Open Embrace
By Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle

Pete Sampras set us up.

After he won Wimbledon in 2000 for his record-setting 13th Grand Slam title,

Sampras must have thought: "They're taking me for granted, those fans. They say I'm so good that I ruin the game, and that I'm a boring guy."

So he purposely (so goes my theory) stopped winning, sunk like a rock in the rankings and started laboring around the court, his aura having left the building.

When Sampras started swinging his way through the pack at the U.S. Open, he had paid his hard-time dues, and the fans and media were able to accord him all the admiration and affection we withheld when he dominated the game with his boring excellence.

How else to explain Sampras' amazing comeback from Palookaville to the penthouse, capped by Sunday's dramatic yet decisive 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Andre Agassi?

How else to explain that Sampras had lost 33 straight tournaments, then showed up at the U.S. Open with that old lightning-bolt serve and matador volley?

Thirty-three aces Sunday against the man who invented the return of serve? Twelve aces in the first set? That's just frightening. For the first hour out there, Agassi must have felt like he was swinging a chopstick against Roger Clemens.

Sampras' 14th Slam was authoritative, and gutsy.

"This one might take the cake," Sampras said, mentally placing the 2002 silver cup onto his groaning shelf of Grand Slam hardware.

"The goods," that's what Sampras told us earlier in the week that he still had. The goods: A package that includes the serve, the volley and the guts to come back when you're sucking wind in the fourth set, the points are stretching out like a bad hamstring and you're facing a world-class battler who has just caught a whiff of opportunity.

In the third set, Sampras was serving at 5-6 and Agassi came back from 40- love to break and turn a rout into a match.

The zip on Sampras' serve seemed to be fading, and memories were stirred of the last two Open finals, when Sampras twice showed the strain of the two-week battle by falling to younger foes in straight sets.

This time Sampras worked through the fatigue. In the fourth game of the fourth set, Agassi was starting to look like Rocky, fighting off five Sampras chances to close out the game. But Sampras used his serve and volley to win the 20-point, seven-deuce classic.

"I was feeling (fatigue), I was definitely feeling a little bit of fatigue, " Sampras said. "I just hung in there the best that I could at the end and got it done."

With the crowd roaring and rooting hard for an Agassi comeback to prolong the drama between their two favorite players, Sampras seized the moment.

"I had it in my hands to serve it out," Sampras said. "And 30-love, second serve up the middle (at 119 mph), I hit an ace. That felt really good."

Who'd-a thunk it, besides Sampras? He was seeded 17th here. He has been saying for weeks now, "I know I've got one more in me," but until a few rounds into the serious action, it sounded like he was referring to kidney stones.

Does Sampras now have another one in him? He didn't say Sunday evening, and even left the door slightly open for retirement.

He almost surely won't, but if Sampras does walk away now, check out those career bookends! It all started for Pete right here at the Open in '90, when he won it as a 19-year-old nobody. Sunday he won his fifth Open title as a 31- year-old, re-inventing legend and becoming the tournament's oldest winner since 1970.

He said this is the best one, and that might be because of the love and admiration he has finally pried out of the fans as he evolved from boring young fogy to exciting senior citizen. Like Agassi, Sampras learned that there is nothing like growing old and overcoming adversity to win the fans.

And, realizing that the fans can be his allies, Sampras has reached out, let us get to know him. After the semis Saturday, he said he planned to relax that night, have a beer. Several veteran tennis writers dropped their notebooks. Hey, even if it was a nonalcoholic brewski, it's the thought that counts.

Sunday, no doubt nursing the world's tiniest hangover, Sampras came out smoking. Credit an assist to Agassi. Not only did the presence of Pete's foremost foe ratchet up the excitement of the afternoon, but Agassi is a big part of the reason Sampras is still here.

"He's made me a better player," Sampras said. "He's brought moments to my career that are like (Bjorn) Borg and (John) McEnroe. Those guys needed each other. I've needed Andre over the course of my career. He's pushed me. You know, he's forced me to add things to my game. He's the only guy that was able to do that. He's the best I've played."

So . . . same time next year?

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Sampras Cements Legacy
By Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated

On Sunday night, 12 years after beating Andre Agassi to win his first Grand Slam singles title, Pete Sampras topped Agassi again for his record 14th Slam. CNNSI.com talked to Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim about the continued excellence of this thirtysomething duo.

CNNSI.com: First of all, how astonishing is it that Sampras and Agassi simply reached the U.S. Open final?

Jon Wertheim: If you had layed odds on these two guys making the final, your winner's check would be more than Sampras'. It's just remarkable. Especially given where Sampras' game was two weeks ago, for him to get to the final is amazing. Agassi is still in Grand Slam shape, but Sampras is the real surprise.

CNNSI.com: Why was Sampras able to get off to such an impressive start? His serve was blistering, and Agassi just didn't seem to have it.

Wertheim: Sampras owes an assist to Lleyton Hewitt. Everybody makes a big deal out of the fact that, unlike Sampras, Agassi makes fitness a priority. But in the first two sets, Sampras clearly had fresher legs. It might have been a matter of beating Sjeng Schalken in three sets in Saturday's first semifinal, rather than Hewitt in four sets in the second semifinal, but Sampras was moving much better. He looked nothing like he did at Wimbledon. Between Wimbledon and the Open, Sampras apparently did a lot to get in better shape.

The first two sets were almost like the women's final Saturday night, with one player serving much better and putting all the pressure on the other.

CNNSI.com: How does this victory help Sampras' case as the best player in history?

Wertheim: He's the all-time great. This seals it. Twelve years of sustained excellence with bookend U.S. Open titles, coming back from that kind of a slump ...

CNNSI.com: What about the naysayers who point to his failures at the French Open?

Wertheim: Twelve years between hard-court Slams is pretty impressive. More than the 14 total Slams and the six years at No. 1, this sort of run -- with 12 years in between Grand Slam titles -- should do it.

CNNSI.com: How was Sampras able to go more than two years without winning a tournament, and then come back to take a Slam?

Wertheim: He said it was a confidence thing, and I guess he was right. We all rolled our eyes when he lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu on Long Island and then said, "I'm going to the Open, where I've done some damage." But that tells us something about how well athletes know themselves and their bodies. On paper, Sampras would've been lucky to win a few rounds. All credit to him.

CNNSI.com: In the big picture, is it good for American tennis to have these two sticking around, or is their presence impeding the development of younger players?

Wertheim: I think in general, it would have been nice in a different way had Andy Roddick been in the final. But to sort of send these guys off, in the oldest U.S. Open final, for them to show they can still hang in their 30s, they've been playing each other for 20 years -- it's not just two veterans. This was really special. At the same time, had the final been Roddick-Hewitt,
I'm not sure we would have complained.

CNNSI.com: Do you see Sampras hanging up his racket now? He's said he would play another year, but what does he have left to prove?

Wertheim: It goes both ways. There would be something poetic in Pete going out on top. But he said that he would make a decision in December of 2003, and if can still bring it like this, still be on top of his game, why not play a few more Slams? I think he'll cut back his schedule, not play the Houstons and San Joses. But if can home in on the Slams, throw in a couple matches here and there, some Davis Cup, why not give it another year?

 

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NEW YORK, Sept. 8 — Pete Sampras was right all along: He did have a 14th Grand Slam title in him. And just like the first, all those years ago, it came in a U.S. Open final against rival Andre Agassi.

His serve clicking, his volleys on target, his forehand as fluid as ever, Sampras beat Agassi 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 Sunday to win America’s major for the fifth time. At 31, Sampras is the Open’s oldest champion since 1970.

Sampras’ play faded in the third set and the fourth, and it was hard to tell whether Agassi or time was taking the bigger toll. But he managed to hold on, the rebuke to his doubters as loud as the sound made by his 33 aces as they slapped the walls behind the baselines: Pop!
When Agassi put a backhand into the net to give Sampras the last break he would need, making it 5-4 in the fourth set, Sampras was so drained he barely lifted a fist, slowly pumping it once as he trudged to the changeover.

He then served it out, with an ace to match point, and a volley winner to end it. And he had enough energy to climb up the stairs in the stands to kiss and hug his pregnant wife, actress Bridgette Wilson.

Sampras hadn’t won a title since July 2000, a drought of 33 tournaments, and his match record this year was barely above .500 coming into the Open, resulting in a seeding of merely 17th. He’s been deflecting questions about retirement for some time now, always insisting he could still produce on the big stage. After all, he figured, his 13 major titles were a record.

Indeed, Sampras played his best tennis at the U.S. Open the past two years, making it to the championship match before losing in straight sets to a pair of 20-year-old first-time Grand Slam finalists: Lleyton Hewitt in 2001, Marat Safin in 2000.

On Sunday, Sampras got to pick on someone his own age: the 32-year-old Agassi, winner of seven Grand Slam titles. They’ve played each other since the junior ranks, before they were 10, and now have met 34 times as pros (Sampras holds a 20-14 edge, including 4-1 in major finals).

If Sunday’s match signaled the end of an era, they produced a gorgeous goodbye. The crowd of more than 23,000 in Arthur Ashe Stadium split its rooting evenly, throwing more vocal support to whichever player trailed. Still, any time a yell of “Pete!” came from one corner, an “Andre!” would follow.

What a study in contrasts. Agassi is the baseline slugger, the greatest returner of his generation, and a true showman (he is from Las Vegas, after all), blowing kisses to the crowd. Sampras is a serve-and-volleyer always looking to get to the net, the greatest server of his generation, and almost always staid on court.

Each played the assigned role to perfection, Sampras smacking his serves at up to 132 mph, and winning the point on 69 of 105 trips to the net. Agassi ventured to the net just 13 times, but conjured up 19 groundstroke winners to Sampras’ 16.

Yet, as though a mirror were at the net, each also showed he can do what the other built a career on. Sampras whipped a backhand return to a corner to set up a service break in the second set; Agassi slammed a service winner at 117 mph to save a break point at 3-3 in the fourth set.

The first four games of the match ended at love, Sampras finding the lines with first and second serves, and Agassi cracking ground strokes right where he wanted them.

Agassi already was walking to the changeover chair when Sampras ended the seventh game with an ace at 117 mph. Pop!

In the next game, Sampras earned the first break point of the match and converted when Agassi’s backhand pass flew wide. Then, serving for the set at 5-3, Sampras faced his first break point. How did he handle it? A second-serve ace at 109 mph. Pop! That helped him take the set.

The second set was similar, Agassi not quite handling the speed and movement of Sampras’ serving - he held at love four times - and Sampras getting the break he needed.

Agassi finally was able to measure Sampras’ serve with some regularity in the third set, like a hitter who finally catches up to a tiring pitcher’s fastball in the late innings.

With the crowd cheering Sampras’ faults - hey, they wanted to see more than three sets - he obliged with a double to give Agassi set point. And Agassi took advantage, stretching for a sharp backhand return that Sampras volleyed into the net.

Showing a bit of gamesmanship, Sampras took a bathroom break. He faced a break point with Agassi ahead 4-3 in the fourth set, and how did he erase it? An ace. Pop!

They had walked out for the match as shadows started to creep across the court, and neither looked much like they did in their 1990 U.S. Open final, where Sampras started his collection of majors.

Back then, Sampras was bushy haired and his arms were as thin as a ball boy’s. Agassi was Mr. Image is Everything, showing up on court with long blond tresses, denim shorts, Day-Glo bicycle tights.

And on Sunday, there was Sampras, his hair thin on top, his bulging right forearm three times thicker than his left. There was Agassi, his head shaved, his outfit downright conventional. Both of their wives were in the crowd - Agassi’s, Steffi Graf, watching with their baby son.

Based on recent play, the showdown seemed improbable. Take a look at what happened at July’s Wimbledon: Both lost in the second round to players ranked outside the top 50.
But both are still in great shape. Agassi was out under the midday sun, swatting shots on a practice court in a black T-shirt. Sampras, headphones on, jogged in the hallway outside the locker room shortly before taking the court.

The last time they played on the Grand Slam stage was in last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals, a match Sampras won in four tiebreakers, with neither player breaking serve even once. It was presumed by many to be their last meeting at a major.

After, Agassi leaned over the net, offering wishes of good luck the rest of the way in that tournament by whispering, “Win this thing.”

One year later, Sampras did.

Yes, the same Sampras who beat Agassi 12 years ago in the U.S. Open. Sampras was 19 then, and still holds the record for youngest winner at the Open.

Nice career bookends, huh?

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Sampras Validates Greatness with Another Slam
By Ian O'conner, USA Today

NEW YORK — Andre Agassi was beaten and bare-chested as he stuffed his rackets and shirts inside his bag, hanging his head low as Pete Sampras passed him by, looking at Agassi but not speaking to him, moving toward his stall and a place in history his vanquished rival
will not touch in this lifetime or next.

Agassi was at locker No. 238, Sampras at locker No. 163, the loser and winner separated by 20 feet and a million miles of achievement. Sampras had his bag slumped over his shoulder, appearing 15 years older than he had four hours back. His thinning hair was frazzled, his hobble was lame, his cold sore was growing from his lip to his nose, but still he was nodding toward a reporter who'd made him swear after his very first match.

Sampras briefly turned profane when told his mentor and former coach, Pete Fischer, had called portions of his straight-sets victory over Albert Portas "sloppy" and "atrocious." As it turned out, Fischer's comments would prove mild when measured against those delivered by
Greg Rusedski, a boob who tried to wish away Sampras but unshackled his inner beast instead.

This whole tournament was a referendum on who Sampras is and what he has been. When voices from the present and past called for his retirement, Sampras insisted on a my-way-only goodbye. When Andy Roddick tried to roll into his first Grand Slam semi with a Jimmy
Connors style and no Jimmy Connors substance, Sampras made their generational gap tighter than Roddick's throat. When Tommy Haas busied himself making a muscle-head fashion statement, Sampras said, "You know, it is about the tennis," before sending the perspective-challenged Haas into the night.

It is about the tennis, after all, and hallelujah to that. After going winless for 26 months and 33 tournaments, the sport's greatest champion needed four sets to win his 14th major, double Agassi's total, beating his antagonist for the third time in three Open finals and beating him like Serena Williams beat her big sister Saturday night.

Sampras had 84 winners to Agassi's 27, 33 aces to Agassi's 7. This Open was closed the second Rod Laver made the coin toss, right after Laver was introduced to the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd as "arguably the greatest men's player of all time."

That argument was less convincing at 7:40 p.m., when Sampras finally struck his Louis Armstrong pose on the Ashe court. He had won his fifth Open six years after his fourth. At 31, he had become the oldest Open champ in 32 years, the oldest Grand Slam champ in 27.

The flashbulbs exploded around Sampras as he hugged Agassi at the net and ran up to his private box, climbing his stairway to heaven and high-fiving fans like Hale Irwin did at Medinah in 1990, the year a teenage Sampras seized his first Open. Sampras would hug his pregnant
wife, Bridgette Wilson, a first-time winner in the Sampras camp. He would hug his sister, Stella, the UCLA coach, and point to his friend, Rick Fox, who knows where to hitch his wagon in two different sports.

"This one might take the cake," Sampras would say.

He didn't destroy Agassi like he had at Wimbledon in '99, and didn't beat Agassi at his best like he had in their forever quarterfinal here last September. But for most of this match, Sampras was packing Bob Gibson heat and Agassi was flailing away with a broomstick.

The greatest returner couldn't deal with the greatest server. Yes, Sampras looked nearly as washed up as Rusedski claimed he was after taking the first two sets, breathing life into Agassi's legs. But his was a temporary state of distress. In the fourth set, Sampras
desperately clung to the seven-deuce fourth game, during which he stared down a lines judge, leaned his exhausted body on the net and, ultimately, stared into the night as the crowd cheered his survival.

Sampras endured a break point in the eighth game, broke Agassi in the ninth, then put him away in the 10th.

"Like Borg and McEnroe," Sampras said. "Those guys needed each other and I needed Andre....He brings out the best in me."

It hasn't always been a two-way street. In the end, the best of Sampras was far better than the best of Agassi. They first played as juniors in Northridge, Calif., the eight-year-old Sampras beating the nine-year-old Agassi. Andre was the giant back then, taller than Pete if not quite as skilled. Nothing changed besides their metabolism.

No matter how often Agassi reinvented himself -- from Barbra Streisand to Brooke Shields to Steffi Graf, from rock star to Zen master to family man, from No. 1 in the world to No. 141 in the world to back on top -- Sampras was always there to hammer him back to Earth.

Image is hardly everything. Inside the locker room last year, before he played Agassi in the quarters, Sampras recalled their classic first-set point in the '95 final - he won it -- and their pivotal four-set result -- he won that, too -- as the moment "the air went out of Andre a bit. That popped his balloon for quite a while."

This result likely popped his balloon for good.

"There's still a danger in the way (Sampras) plays and how good he is," Agassi said. "Anybody that says something different is really ignorant, because Pete has a lot of weapons out there. I'm well aware of that."

Too aware. Agassi had forecast this showdown as a "nice toast to the past....Inside my own mind, I have been pulling for him."

Moral of the day: be careful what you wish for. If Agassi and Sampras wore Nike swooshes and could've been labeled bald and balding, the comparisons died right there.

"A story-book ending," Sampras said. "It might be nice to stop, but...."

He still loves to play, still lives for the moment. Sampras left open the possibility he might retire in the coming weeks, might ride off into the sunset like John Wayne and John Elway. But he wants his last Wimbledon match to be played on the right patch of grass, he said, "not Court 13 or 2."

Either way Sampras will keep a promise to himself and listen to his own heart. The game will be played on his terms, precisely why Sampras refuses to credit Rusedski as his inspiration the way Jack Nicklaus credited a Jack's-washed-up article in Atlanta as his inspiration at the '86 Masters.

It is about the tennis, after all. Sunday night, Pete Sampras earned the right to say hallelujah to that.

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Sampras Ends Doubts in Open
By Selena Roberts, NY Times

September 9, 2002 - Peel away their history together, and go beneath their past loves, losses and current reincarnations, and what remained was two married guys at a special reunion last night, playing as if nothing ever changes.

They were the same as always, and as different as usual. There was Pete Sampras, methodically popping out aces like a Pez dispenser, deliberately separating his racket strings between points. There was Andre Agassi, trying to find himself on the court, pacing in cat circles between points.

Then Agassi tuned in and Sampras fizzled out. But just when it appeared that Sampras's desperate attempt to soothe two empty years in his career would escape him, when it seemed Agassi's winter of wind sprints would doom his longtime rival, the pattern of the ages continued.

Bent over, with lead in his bones, a weary Sampras left Agassi wondering once again what had just happened as Sampras captured his fifth United States Open title with a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory.

A moment later, as the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium stood in reverent applause, Sampras greeted Agassi at the net with an embrace.

"To beat a rival like Andre in a major at the U.S. Open, it's a storybook ending," said Sampras, who is 4-1 against Agassi in major finals and 20-14 over all. "But I still want to compete. I still love to play. I'll see where I'm at in a couple of months, where my heart is and my mind."

Agassi isn't going anywhere for now. He did not react with melancholy, just disappointment. To many, he was the one expected to win last night. Wasn't Agassi the sharper one the last two weeks? Wasn't he on his way to a fifth set last night?

After their 34th meeting, it was hard to call one a loser. If this was the last major between them, the United States Open final was a fitting dance floor.

All the memories they recreated last night, all the time capsules they opened for the occasion, were all for the public's viewing pleasure. Everyone was invited to watch Agassi and Sampras for old times' sake.

The lead-up never matters with these two. Out of nowhere, Sampras's desire for major No. 14 converted into adrenaline as he went from tired strokes to crisp passing shots, from double faults to aces late in the fourth set.

After struggling to save two break points in the eighth game, he conjured up the critical break point against Agassi, turning the match around in the ninth. At that moment, one forehand into the net by Agassi was all Sampras needed.

He was ready to serve out the match. After his 33rd ace of the day, after a backhand volley touched down for a winner on match point, Sampras smiled at the leftover blue in the evening sky as he raised his arms.

"This one takes the cake," Sampras said. "The way this year was going, the way I had to come through, it was awesome."

His 14th major was more important than the rest, if only to vanquish the issues surrounding Sampras. He should retire before he embarrasses himself. So he won in throwback style. He couldn't win as a married man. And so the father-to-be did.

"She's a big reason why I've been able to kind of get through this tough period," said Sampras, who married Bridgette Wilson after he won his record 13th major title, at Wimbledon in 2000. "She lives with me every day. Trust me, it's not easy. When you're struggling, you're not having fun. It's a burden. It just showed me that I met the right woman."

To underscore that, Sampras trotted up the stairs of the stadium and sought out his wife. They hugged.

Bridgette has been by his side, from the 2000 Wimbledon, through the devastating low Sampras felt after losing in the second round at the All England Club in July. A few days later, Sampras called the coach he had split from a year earlier. He wanted Paul Annacone back, and the timing was perfect.

"Whatever is next, it's his choice," Annacone said. "He can continue on the path he started last month and get better, or he could walk off into the sunset."

Agassi and Sampras are as different as two men can be - Agassi is a CNN man, Sampras is an ESPN junkie - but they have come to embrace a link that has left them as inseparable as any legendary duo.

"I believe in fate to a point, a little destiny for sure," Sampras said. "I think it went that way at this event, playing Andre in the final, two Americans who have meant a lot to the game in the U.S. It was a fitting way to end it."

Sampras and Agassi emerged as the oldest two players to meet in a United States Open final in 32 years.

"I think a lot of people get support at the end of their careers," Agassi said. "The difference is they thought I'd been at the end of mine for eight years now."

Although Sampras was 31 and Agassi was 32, they seemed to be at different levels of need. It had been two years and 33 tournaments since Sampras won his last event.

Agassi won the 2001 Australian Open and several Tour titles on his journey to the United States Open final. He was less desperate. At first, it showed. Sampras arrived in sync, untouchable through the first two sets, with no sign of wear and tear after five matches in six days.

Agassi was fumbling for the station amid the static. His strokes were fuzzy, his head wasn't clear, and before he knew it, two sets had slipped away in less than an hour.

"Just a tough day for me," Agassi said. "On top of him playing well, I just was flat. I had to work pretty hard to just give myself a chance."

The role reversal began in the sixth game of the third set. On the second point, Agassi rifled a running cross-court passing shot for a winner, a first sign of his revival.

Sampras managed to save three break points that game, but Agassi had inserted some doubt into his old rival's head. Fitness started to separate the two as the third set wore on. All those sprints up the mountain in Las Vegas, all the time spent in the gym, were paying off for Agassi.

Sampras was sagging. His deflated legs finally caught up to him in the 12th game. After four deuces, Agassi finally had a second break point for the third set. Sounding like a symphony warming up for a concert, there was the sweet, chaotic sound of cries for Pete, clashing with the cheers for Andre.

The noise in a cavernous stadium not known for volume reached a peak. On a second break point, Sampras punched a weary forehand volley into the net to hand the third set to
Agassi.

The hunched state, the Jell-O in Sampras's legs, it was all camouflage. Frantic to end the match, not wanting to give Agassi a fifth set of momentum, and needing this fifth United States Open title to validate his belief in himself, Sampras reached inside and came up with some magic.

"It was special," Agassi said. "You can't get around that. I take what I can get. Hopefully, it will happen again."

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A Duel Fit for New York
By George Vecsey, NY Times

The last rays of sun vanished from the upper deck of the east stands at 7:09 p.m. Pay no attention to the calendar: this is when autumn actually begins in New York, on the last evening of the United States Open, when the sun goes down.

Only two people were still left standing from this very long and now very old summer. Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi have been going at each other for a long time, since they were children, but now night was falling for both of them.

This was the 34th time the two of them had met, tying them with Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, another of the great tennis rivalries. They both acknowledged this meeting could be their last in a Grand Slam tournament, and they both wanted it to be an epic match, but it could only become great under a darkening sky, in this city that has nurtured them on their visits since their teens.

Now in New York, with night coming on, the two old rivals pulled the best out of each other, one last time. Sampras, 31, tried to blow his serve past Agassi, 32, who tried to whistle his return past Sampras, both of them hoping for some easy sets, but knowing better.

Easy matches did not create Tilden-Johnston or Rosewall-Laver or King-Court Smith. They all had to struggle with each other to gain respect for each other.

Agassi and Sampras do not sit around and share their carbo stash the way Martina Navratilova did with Chris Evert when they waited for their final round sandwiched between two men's semifinals. But in their own distant guy way, Agassi and Sampras have come to know they needed each other for these final days of their career.

"He's made me a better player," Sampras would say afterward. "He's brought moments to my career that are like Borg and McEnroe. Those guys needed each other. I've needed Andre over the course of my career. He's pushed me. You know, he's forced me to add things to my game.

"He's the only guy that was able to do that," Sampras would add. "He's the best I've played."

On what could be the last time for these American men, straight sets would not have sufficed, although that is what Sampras was hoping for as he ripped off monstrous first serves and audacious second serves to take a two-set lead. But Agassi was not going to let Sampras off easy, and neither was Sampras's aging body.

Part of the crowd adored Sampras and nobody wished him harm, but as the sunlight disappeared from the lip of the stadium, the crowd implored Agassi to win a set. Nothing personal, just a bit of amortizing of their considerable investment in the tickets produced the cheers for Agassi.

This is when New Yorkers turn up their Knick volume and their Ranger loyalty for the player who is losing. The players all understand that. The fans in Ashe Stadium had tried to do that for Venus Williams on Saturday night, when her sister Serena was smoking her in two sets, but it is basically impossible to separate the two sisters, and the crowd was stymied. This is not how great rivalries are born. There may never be a great Williams rivalry to match Becker-Edberg or Seles-Graf. Or Sampras-Agassi.

The crowd cheered as Agassi won the third set, as Sampras began to lose his serve. Pete lumbered off to the bathroom, and it was easy to conjure up images of the aches and pains that have caught up with him late in these long matches.

"I was definitely feeling a little bit of fatigue," Sampras would say later.

Sampras has always hunched over, looking like a man with a stomachache — and sometimes he actually was — so there was a reasonable scenario of him deteriorating as the evening wore on.

However, it is also true that Sampras has never lost at night at the United States Open, in 20 official night sessions. Now it was evening. The Jets' football game had gone into overtime on CBS, delaying the start of the tennis match by nearly 45 minutes, but now Sampras was able to battle his slump and his years and his worthy opponent in the cool of the evening, Pete's time.

Now, under the glare of lights, the crowd was begging for a fifth set, hoping for the manic late-night feel out in Flushing Meadows when, historically, people like McEnroe and Connors and Ilie Nastase have turned into werewolves in shorts.

"I wanted it to go longer," Agassi would say later. "I mean, that's the only chance I had, to get it to a fifth. I think there's a lot of momentum coming from two sets back if you can get to the fifth."

Sampras wanted to avoid that. His serves regained their early pop and he broke Agassi in the ninth game, and then he padded in for a winning volley, as he has done so often, to give himself a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7,
6-4 victory for his 14th Grand Slam championship, the most in history, doubling Agassi's total.

Sampras also took a 20-14 lead in this series that may now be over. Their bodies and their wills cannot know at this moment if they have anything left. But if this was the last one, it was appropriate. It was New York, it was night, and autumn was coming on.

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2002 US Open Championship
New York City

September 8, 2002

Pete Sampras/A. Agassi
6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4

An interview with: PETE SAMPRAS

THE MODERATOR: First question for Pete, please.

Q. If I could ask what might be the obvious, you've got 14 of these in hand. How does this one stack up?

PETE SAMPRAS: This one might take the cake. I mean, I never thought anything would surpass what happened at Wimbledon a couple years ago, but the way I've been going this year, to kind of come through this and play, you know, the way I did today, it was awesome. I peaked at the right time against Andre. You know, had to play five matches in seven days. That was a lot of work. Just glad it's over, you know. I feel really good. Feel like I played extremely well today and I had to against Andre, who's very tough to beat. It was just a tough second week. It was one of the tougher second weeks, having all the rain delays. Having to get through tough matches, playing back to back Saturday and Sunday, it was a good effort. One of my better ones.

Q. Can you talk about your feelings when you walked on the court with Andre.

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, it was -- it made me nervous, you know, just sitting there. The crowd was so electric. It made me kind of pumped up, a little bit nervous. The atmosphere was awesome, it really was. Even though there were points in the third where they were getting pretty loud for him, kind of making a huge roar there when he broke me. But it was quite a day. It was really -- played extremely well when I had to.

Q. You played two and a half fabulous sets at the start. How did you drag yourself through that period when you were clearly getting tired?

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, I was feeling it a little bit in the third, end of it. I played a lot of matches. You know, feeling the legs a touch. He started picking it up, especially his return of serve - he made me work real hard, then broke me. I was still up a set, I still felt pretty good out there. I just hung in there, got through some tough games at 2-1, down a couple break points. 4-3 down a couple break points. Then picked it up there to serve it out. It all happened pretty quick. But I was feeling it. I was definitely feeling a little bit of fatigue. I just hung in there the best that I could at the end and got it done.

Q. Go into that ninth game in the fourth set where you did break him, did you have an internal monologue with yourself? Talk me through the point in terms of what you saw, what you were thinking.

PETE SAMPRAS: You're not really doing a lot of thinking, it's all reaction. I had a couple break points. He had a couple good serves to my backhand. I chipped it short. He's not gonna miss those shots. The one that I did convert I hit a good return deep and it kind of caught him off guard. I had it in my hands to serve it out. And 30-love, second serve, up the middle I hit an ace. That felt really good to win that.

Q. Can you talk about the fourth game in that set.

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah. Huge game.

Q. How important was it to hold your serve?

PETE SAMPRAS: It was a massive game. The momentum definitely switched there in the third. The crowd was getting into it. He had a couple break points there. I managed to squeak it out. It was a huge turning point just to kind of hold on to serve there. I still felt like I was in it. So there's some big points there I got through.

Q. You said all along the serve was going to make the difference for you. Two aces in the first game. Did you know at that moment that you were going to have the serve that you had all day today?

PETE SAMPRAS: I felt pretty good. Had a good warm-up. Serve was definitely clicking today. I felt it in the first couple service games, good rhythm. And, you know, I was hitting it pretty accurate with a lot of speed and mixing it up well. I was doing everything I wanted to do with my serve and hitting the second serve quite well. It was a good serving day.

Q. If you look back to before the Open, things you changed around, you've had a pretty tumultuous year, what were the key factors that put you in the position you were in to win this?

PETE SAMPRAS: Just a lot of support from my wife, from my family, working with Paul again. That really gave me a lot of peace of mind. Some stability. You know, he knows me better than anyone as a tennis player. And it all worked out. So much of kind of what I was going through this year was mental. It wasn't forehands and backhands and serves. It was kind of my head space. Wasn't real positive out there, kind of got down on myself extremely quick out there. We had some heart-to-heart talks about just my mind, where I'm at. All I could do after Wimbledon was start working again, get back to the drawing board. And start doing the running and the practicing, and it paid off this week.

Q. Is this the kind of -- does this make you look forward more to more Slams or does it make you happy to finish?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I'm gonna have to weigh it up in the next couple months to see where I'm at. I still want to play. I love to play. But to beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the US Open, a story book ending, it might be nice to stop. But... (Laughter). But... I still want to compete, you know? I still love to play. You know, see where I'm at in a couple months, where my heart's at and my mind. Right now it's hard to really talk about -- I mean, my head's spinning. But I'm sure the next couple weeks I'll reflect on it and kind of see where I'm at in a few months' time.

Q. When you went into the stands, was that spur of the moment, or was that planned?

PETE SAMPRAS: Spur of the moment. It was to share it with my sister and my wife. You know, those people really are the reason I'm here. I had that support. Because there were moments where I was struggling to continue to play and, you know, my wife really supported me and kept me positive and kept me upbeat. That support was huge for me at this stage of my career.

Q. Could you contrast the emotions of Wimbledon with that of the Open.

PETE SAMPRAS: Night and day. I mean, Wimbledon was the low point. This is the high point. Wimbledon was a shocking loss. It was -- got home and just was kind of down on my career and where I'm at. And I turned it around pretty quickly.

Q. Overall in your career, the seven Wimbledons compared to let's say the five Opens.

PETE SAMPRAS: I think this one might take the cake. Just after winning 13, I was kind of trying to figure out my goals from there - was to try to win another major. This year, struggling and hearing just I should stop, kind of the negative tone from the press or commentary. To kind of get through it and kind of believe in myself at a very tough time means a lot. It means more than anything probably, because adversity, and to be able to get through the adversity feels great.

Q. The day after Wimbledon did you fly home that Thursday morning or Thursday afternoon and just wondering, a long flight to LA. Did you do a lot of thinking on the plane?

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah.

Q. Did you have a lot of doubt?

PETE SAMPRAS: Just was empty. It was an empty feeling. I was working so hard, I was doing all the right things. It wasn't clicking. Little anxiety creeped in. You just lose a little confidence. Guys are just getting a little bit better today. I got home and was pretty down for a week or so, and I just needed to kind of, you know, start working again. That's all you can do when you're at a low point, is start practicing - and that's what I did. It paid off here.

Q. Did you ever, just for a moment perhaps, even think, "Perhaps I ought to stop now?"

PETE SAMPRAS: I wanted to stop on my terms. That was one thing I promised myself, even though I was struggling this year and hearing this and that. I deserved to stop on my own terms. And I've done too much in the game to, you know, hear the negative things and start believing it because there was a point I was believing it, maybe this time. But having my family, my wife just kind of keep me going and Paul, just keep me positive, and that was huge for me. You know, because I could step away from the game and feel really good about what I'd done. But I still felt like I had one more moment, maybe a couple more moments. And it happened today.

Q. To be back in New York, did that have any motivational role for you?

PETE SAMPRAS: Competing, not much. But, you know, as far as the ceremony before, yeah, it touched me. And after, the people are into the match, into the tennis. But as you're in the trenches, you're just focused on what you're doing. New York's been through a battle this past year, and it's nice to see them come out and enjoy the tennis. It was a pleasure to play here.

Q. I wanted to ask, can you tell us something about your game plan for this match. It was nice to see an all-court game, observing it.

PETE SAMPRAS: That's what I wanted to try to do, set the tone, be aggressive on his second serves, take some chances, hopefully serve well and put pressure on him. That was -- kind of go for it. That was kind of my game plan. The thing I don't want to do against Andre is stay back too much, get into rallies. He's very good at that. Very good at just, you know, kind of moving you around. Just took my chances. I got it done.

Q. Do you remember when Boris met you at the net at Wimbledon and said, "I want my last match here to be against you." Do you think about that ever, who you want your last match here or at Wimbledon to be against?

PETE SAMPRAS: No, I haven't thought about it really.

Q. Greg Rusedski maybe (laughter)?

PETE SAMPRAS: He's got his own issues (laughter). His issues have issues.

Q. There's a left-handed British player...

PETE SAMPRAS: You have a question?

Q. Yeah, I asked who you thought it might be, or the circumstances.

PETE SAMPRAS: I don't know. You can't predict these things. Whoever it is, it is. I mean, I don't know. I can't, you know, you wanted a storybook ending, but hopefully my last Wimbledon will be on court - and not Court 13 or 2 (laughter).

Q. There's a left-handed British player who offered some tennis analysis this week. The BBC loves to get former players as their analysts. Do you think he has much of a future as an analyst?

PETE SAMPRAS: We're talking too much about the wrong guy, you know, in Greg. He said what he said. It doesn't faze me. He's got his own issues he's got to deal with.

Q. You've had to answer some questions over the past year or two about whether maybe finding your wife coincided with losing your game a little bit. How did that affect her? Does she share in this victory?

PETE SAMPRAS: Absolutely. It wasn't fair that -- the timing of breaking the record and getting married. I just felt like I was at a point in my career that it was a tough place to be after winning 13. Got married two months later. I was happy. I was happy being married. I met the woman of my dreams and now we're going to have a child. That's what life's all about. But she's, you know, a big reason why I've been able to kind of get through this tough period. She lives with me every day. Trust me, it's not easy (laughter). When you're struggling, you're not having fun, it's a burden. Just showed me that I met the right woman.

Q. From this point on, regardless of what happens, if you continue playing and it doesn't go well, is everything happy because this has happened?

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, I feel great. I feel like all the hard work paid off. All the adversity I was up against this year, I was able to get through it. That means more to me than anything. Just, you know, I don't know where I'm going to go from here; I really don't. Gonna take some time to enjoy it, reflect a little bit and kind of see where I'm at.

Q. Where are you for Davis Cup?

PETE SAMPRAS: I haven't thought much about Davis Cup.

Q. Did you draw much from Andre's example of how he coped with adversity and rose to the top again? What did that do for you dealing with your adversity and getting back to the top?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, not much. You know, Andre, he's got as much talent as anyone. There was points in his career where he was struggling at times and it wasn't anything I thought of when I was going through my slump, or my tough time. I believe when you have talent, you have talent. You know, it's not gonna go anywhere. It's just a matter of mentally being positive. But he came from 140 to 1 in the world. That's a pretty huge comeback. My comeback, I'm still pretty competitive, came in here 17 seed. Was able to do it here, so felt good.

Q. Knowing what you know now about adversity and coming back, look back now on the easy days when you were a title machine. Does that help put you in perspective?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, those days, it was -- you don't appreciate it as much as when you struggle a little bit. When I was dominating, 1 in the world, winning Slams easily, I expected it. Now the expectations are still pretty high, but it wasn't, you know, kind of where I was at five years ago. You know, when you're struggling with confidence, you're not playing as well, players are better. I dealt with that adversity pretty well these past couple weeks. And this might take the cake. This might be my biggest achievement so far, is to come through a very, very tough time and to win the Open. I mean, that's pretty sweet.

Q. Could you talk about the inner excitement you must have about becoming a father, and what you think your best quality as a father might be.

PETE SAMPRAS: It's hard to say. You know, we're going to experience parenthood, knock on wood, in a few months. Hopefully, I'll be a good father. Hopefully someone that my kid's gonna look up to me and the way I am and I hope I'm a good kind of role model for him or her.

Q. In all the meetings you've had with Andre, where does this one rank with you in terms of quality and drama for you?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, there were points today that remind me a little bit of Wimbledon, the year I kind of got in the zone, you know. Really felt like everything clicked today. And just played as well as I could. You know, really -- I knew he was gonna start playing better in the third, he broke me. I just felt like I kind of was in the zone there for a while. It's hard to keep up that pace against him for three straight sets. But I played as well as I could, and you have to against him. He's a great player. You have to match his game, and I was able to do that.

Q. That moment at the net at the end, how emotional was that? Did you two speak?

PETE SAMPRAS: Just he's -- no disrespect to anyone I've played over the years, but he's the best I've ever played. He brings out the best in me. I've said that over the years. He has that extra gear that is very tough to play against. You know, those moments are great moments. You know, win or lose out there, it's about, you know, competing against the best. He still is one of the best. It was a good moment up there.

Q. Andre was asked if he sort of understood, you know, he knew what was going on, whether he was concerned or reflective, and he said basically you're just trying to play tennis. He was concentrating on the balls. Did you at all think of the momentous occasion?

PETE SAMPRAS: No. You know, you're in the trenches, you're just focused on the next point. You're not really thinking about -- obviously it's a huge match, but you're not -- it's still a tennis court with the same dimensions as my court at home. So it's kind of the mindset I had. You have to keep it simple and not get too overwhelmed with it all. I'm sure serving for the match, you know, I felt it, I'm serving for the title. So you just go out there and compete. You hope it works out. That's my kind of mentality.

Q. Was there any sense of disbelief that, "I am going to win the US Open," as you had hoped and as a lot of us doubted you could?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, it hit me when I was serving for the match. Like I had it on my hands to win it. And it all happened pretty quickly. Struggling to hold serve 4-all, hit a couple good shots and I was serving for the match. Went for a point of being down a break in the fourth to coming back serving for the match in a matter of five minutes. Kind of an eerie feeling, but it all happened so quickly at the end. It was a nice way to end it.

Q. Do you ever get tired of winning?

PETE SAMPRAS: No, you never get tired of winning these moments. These moments are why we play. This is the Super Bowl. So that's why I continue to play.

Q. That's why you will?

PETE SAMPRAS: That's why I will.

Q. Do you believe in fate and do you think maybe you were fated to win this this year?

PETE SAMPRAS: I believe in fate to a certain point, but you have to put in the work, you have to play the great tennis. But a little destiny, sure. I think it might have went my way this event to play Andre in the final, two Americans that have meant a lot to the game in the US. Yeah, it was a fitting way to end it.

Q. How different would your career have been without Andre?

PETE SAMPRAS: Just -- he's made me a better player. He's brought moments to my career that are like Borg and McEnroe. Those guys needed each other. I've needed Andre over the course of my career. He's pushed me. You know, he's forced me to add things to my game. He's the only guy that was able to do that. He's the best I've played.

Q. What's the feeling of being the second oldest US Open champion? Do you think it's the last time you and Andre will meet in a Grand Slam final?

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, it's hard to say what the future is going to hold for us. You know, to meet in major finals, players are too good today -- where we were five years ago when we were dominating, now, this could be it for us. But maybe next year we'll do it again.

End of FastScripts.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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