Pete Sampras, the greatest tennis player of all time, gave the tennis world some of its most breathtaking moments. At his best he was an unstoppable tennis killing machine that made opponents tremble in fear at the mere thought of facing it. However, there were times throughout his career where you just had to stand up and applaud his great inner spirit, rather than his tennis skills. One of my favourite moments from the Sampras legacy is his brave display against Russia in the Davis Cup final on clay. In one of the matches against Chesnokov he fought tooth and nail in an epic battle, which went five sets, and then he collapsed after the match point. It demonstrated Pete's amazing will to win, which was, and still is, unparalleled to this day.

Video evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGchVOtZAB4

you've opened a can of worms now :lol:

My favourite Pete Sampras moment was when Fed beat him at Wimbledon in 2001.You're right about the can of worms d104..

Mine would have to be when he lost to Agassi in a tight US Open final in 2002. Oh . . . wait . . . he won that one. :angry:

I was always more of an Agassi fan, so I tended to like their Aussie Open meetings more so than the ones at the US Open, where Pete always seemed to beat him. Sampras was great, though. I do think that '02 US Open is one of my favourite Sampras moments, just because of what it meant to close out his career like that, the triumph after that long stretch of difficulty, and the in-your-face to the doubters like Rusedski. :P

Fav Sampras moment- probably his wimbledon win in 2000. never was a big fan of sampras, but you could just see how much that 7th Wimby meant to him, and his parents were there. magical Wimby that year, the two great americans won :D

You beat me to it DL, this was easily his best moment in my opinion. Such a dramatic match and one of my all time fave Wimbledon matches. Just posted in the Youtube thread to remind y'all. :)

Hello Dr.
Good to see you again. Unfortunately for me, I cannot single out one single momemt when Pete played as all of them were superlative.
But what ranked above everything else was the tribute during his retirement speech speech at the US Open. I had the proviledge to be there and couldn't hold back tears. A fitting finale to the greatest ever tennis player.

roflmao

pete was certainly great anyway :D

A great player, about to be surpassed by the man who finished him at Wimby :D

*barring A current swiss legend by the name of Federer, who is so great he has his shrine on the BBC* roflmao

Sam :doh:

Baiting them :tsk:

Fed is going to be the greatest of all time - fact :D

Sampras is history now. This is the era of Federer who will surpass all that went before him.

Andre Agassi was by far the most popular American player of that era.
Even the commentators noted that when Agassi retired this year.
Cheesy speech sure but the American crowd loved him.

I'd first of all like to express my delight at two of the best posters on the BBC board, the Dr and chet, joining this board. There are so many Sampras moments that I just can't distinguish between but my favourite 2 are his win against Agassi in the US Open final 2002 (amazing how he managed to win it whilst being so badly off form) and his straight sets demolition of the same player in the '99 Wimbledon final. One thing's for sure, these achievements certainly won't be surpassed for a very long time.

Its only a message board which is now deceased anyway. Lets not get carried away eh.
I know sometimes its hard to seperate real life from virtual life but one must try ;)

My favourite Sampras moment is the look on his face after losing to Agassi at the AO in 2000. B)

Big Al, that was a great match, one of the few times poor Agassi managed to get the better of his nemesis in a Slam. That was possibly the only time Pete played well in a match and still lost.

The high -bouncing surface had a lot to do with it .
Agassis game wasnt really suited to grass though, people tend to forget that when praising Sampras's '99 Wimby final win, great though it was.

Sam, you're forgetting Venus's Wimby record :tsk:

My favourite moment is this one: ( Notice how small Sampras are!!! :giggle: )

Wait till you see Maria's in ten years time! :D

she provides the strawberries, I provide the cream! roflmao

roflmao

Were you the streaker @ Wimbledon?

I would go with the Wimbledon99 performance.Agassi was superb that year playing better than ever after his downturn.He was fit ,strong, and quick still.After the match he was going to be the world no1 too.

Then Pete put in one of the finest grasscourt matches I have seen.Probably one of the few occasions at almost every great point Sampras played,I would just say WOW!!.I thought he was awesome that day,and that match is up there with the 84 final when Mcenroe toyed with Connors by cutting him into tiny pieces.That game was more surgical.
Sampras performance was more like JAB,JAB,and a BIG RIGHT. :bow:

More crap and wind posts!

Dr_Sincere will you ever learn!

to be honest, I wasn't really into tennis in Sampras's time, so I think i'm gonna go and hunt on YouTube to find all these matches you've mentioned :D