Thought I will start a new thread to chart Sampras' matches in the senior tour he will be playing. He's going to busy - he's been playing more and more exhibitions and will be inducted in the Hall of Fame in July. By all accounts he's playing great. He also commented about his practice with Federer in March. As I thought at the time, those Federer fanatics on BBC got carried away (I distinctly remember the phrase "stunning manouvre". Anyway here are some articles to start off:

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/78-...07-1340226.html

And he won his 1st match very well against Korda

http://www.mcall.com/sports/tennis/sns-ap-...0,4851343.story

He plays Wilander tonight and McEnroe tomorrow in Boston.

I will add more articles here as time goes on.

Here are some highlights of the match http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/

laurie.
Are you going to these matches? I went to see Pete play the last two days and he seems to play exactly where he had left off against Agassi.
Hope he decided to give Wimby another shot.

Does anyone know if these matches are televised anywhere? Be great to see Sampras in action!

Sara,
They are on the local Boston sports channel NESN. Unfortunately not in europe or UK.
Dont know of any other channel televising it.

Hi Chepantv, I live in South London so no chance I'm afraid.

Great to see him back isn't it.

I'm hopig he will make the trip to the Royal Albert Hall in December.

The matches are been showed on local stations in Boston, New York etc.

A lot of people are talking about it http://www.tenniswarehouse.com some of the guys have been to the match and are talking about it.

I wll just keep putting those great Sampras matches on my website. I definitely think more and more people are starting to be reminded of his natural talent.

Do you think he will make it to the Albert Hall? when I first heard about his possible return to tennis on the Seniors - it was suggested that he was sticking to USA tourneys and wouldnt make it over here...

I hope he does because I'd like to catch him in action at the Albert too (on tv anyway!) as - I believe I mentioned before - a rather biased view towards him due to being a Henman supporter meant I didnt take his talent into account.

Would love chance to view it with a more open opinion.

Thanks for this laurie :ok: Sounds like Sampras played some good stuff, I'll be sure to check out the highlights.

Any news on his second match against Wilander? (or is it Mayotte?) According to the site, that match was scheduled for yesterday, but information on this tournament seems to be pretty elusive. If it is the former, I'd expect him to administer a similar beating, the Swede's older than Korda and less match fit.

Here are some quotes from some of the game's leading lights following Sampras's destruction of Korda, which I'm sure certain members of this board will be 'delighted' to read :D :

"I can assure you that his game is more than ready to take on the competition here (The Seniors Tour). This week, we're up against it. If Wimbledon was best-of-three, Pete Sampras would be the No. 2 seed right now ." :yikes: - Jim Courier

"He might not be ready for best of five, but he’s stepped it up from when I saw him a year ago. He’s got more movement, he’s holding his own against top 10 guys. It’s taken him some time, but I can see the marked difference. He has more rhythm on his serve, he’s hitting a backhand better, he’s a league ahead [of everyone here]. I couldn’t name five players I’d take over Pete on grass. Davydenko? On grass? Go down the list. I’m not sure about Nadal either. Pete is the master on grass. Best of five and luck of the draw would be the difference. There wouldn’t be a guy in the tournament who’d want to play him. Roger would say he’d want to play him, but he’d be concerned. He’d be a lot more concerned than he would be against all these other guys :blink: - John McEnroe

"On grass, Pete's serve is still murder and the new generation wouldn’t know how to return it, because the only way to properly return Pete’s heater is to slap it back. Most of the guys in the draw, he would beat badly on grass" :o - Petr Korda

"Sampras will play Wimbledon and is hitting an incredibly heavy ball" :yahoo: - Tim Mayotte

Who is Tim Mayotte and what is he on? :rolleyes:

roflmao

ah, but can you imagine Sampras and Fed going up against each other at Wimbledon - every tennis board going would go into meltdown - it would be fab!

Thanks or these quotes Wise. Pete thrashed Tim Mayotte 6-2, 6-1 yesterday.

He beat Mac 6-3 6-4 last night too. Great to see the old meister back in action.

As for Wimbledon, well it would be nice to see. But I don't see him going very far. He lost to Geoge Bastl in better shape that this. Tim Mayotte is talking a bit tongue in cheek I imagine.

Good that the Sampras dross can be kept in one thread and away from the worthwhile topics :D

Pebs, I agree that all of the tennis boards would definitely go into meltdown if a Fed Sampras rematch were to happen! That would be sooo funny. :lol:


However, Here's a part from the interviews that Laurie mentioned that Wise Analyst didn't quote (selective quoting being a good little skill of his) :rolleyes:


Still, Sampras said there's no way he'll seek an exemption for one more shot at Wimbledon, an event he won seven times.

"I wouldn't play Wimbledon just to play -- I would play to win," he said. "There needs to be a reason to come back and there really isn't a reason for me to come back

:whistle:

So SW is right, what exactly is Tim Mayotte on? :

Ah, didnt really see it happening - but it would be soooo cool :)

Either way, its nice to see him back playing.

Yip.. agreed on both fronts :ok:

How disappointing that we don't get to see the matches in Europe! Chet, Laurie - please keep the updates on how he is playing coming through!

I'd LOVE to see Sampras play again, so here's hoping he does come to the Albert Hall...

Seriously, the more I think about it, the more I think Sampras would still be able to wipe the floor with a jaw droppingly high number of players at SW19 - the fact that he probably realises that there would be a couple that would stop him in his tracks is what would hold him back.

I'd love to see that serve & volley again, just think it would be stifled against the indefatigable returners of today.

Interesting he doesn't see a reason to come back and play Wimbledon? Surely he's realised that it would help silence a number of heated debates - he and Federer have a duty to give a definitive answer!! ;)

Would love to see Sampras make a comeback, because from his comments it's clear that he'd only come back if he was fully motivated and sure he would win. If he did get into shape, only Federer could beat him at Wimbledon that's for sure. As for him 'ruling it out', I see a lot of speculation but he still hasn't categorically said 'I'm definitely not playing Wimbledon this year' - let's face it, if he definitely intended not to, all this speculation wouldn't exist.

Here are the match reports for his victories over Mayotte and McEnroe, and updates on the tournament in general:

Sampras, McEnroe win at Champions Cup

May 5, 2007
BOSTON (TICKER) -- Pete Sampras continued to cruise through his return to competitive tennis, defeating Tim Mayotte, 6-2, 6-1, in the second night of action of Champions Cup Boston at Agganis Arena.

He now is ready to face John McEnroe here Saturday in one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament. McEnroe defeated Petr Korda, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 10-2.

"I'm expecting just an entertaining match a match of two guys that like to come in, two really good shot makers," Sampras said. "John's 48 but he's still very competitive. He still has his great hands and hits the ball early.

"I've always matched up pretty well against John, even when we were both in our primes. We want to both play well and put on a good show."

The Sampras-Mayotte game was equal parts tennis and entertainment, as the two competitors pandered to the crowd and chatted back and forth with each other and the line judges. The two even allowed a ball boy and ball girl to play a point during the match.

"Going out and playing with Tim obviously he hasn't played competitive tennis in many years. You want to play well; you want to put on a good show. People still want to see me serve 130 and do the things I can do.

"As the weekend goes on I'm just going to play 100 percent. Because people ultimately just want to see good tennis. They like the entertainment, but to see the highest quality tennis is what these people are paying good money to see."

Sampras dominated the Massachusetts native with a powerful serve. The 14-time major winner didn't appear to lose much on both his first and second serves, as he didn't lose serve once during the match.

"I felt pretty good," Sampras said. "My arm came up pretty good and my body feels pretty solid. I've been hitting two or three days a week for the past couple of months so I've gotten used to it. I feel like I pulled up pretty good today."

Sampras took the first set with relative ease, breaking Mayotte in the third game and carrying that momentum to a 6-2 victory. Mayotte, a last minute replacement for Mats Wilander, struggled to get his service over the net and allowed Sampras to break his serve again on a double fault when the set was at 4-2.

The second set was much of the same, as Sampras broke Mayotte again in the third game on another Mayotte double fault and won out from there, winning the match by breaking Mayotte for the fifth time.

The win improved Sampras to 2-0 while Mayotte fell to 0-2.

After falling to Korda in the tiebreak to end the first set after blowing a 4-2 lead, McEnroe responded by going up 5-2 in the second set. Korda rallied back, but McEnroe broke Korda's serve to win the second set before taking the tiebreaker, 10-2, to emerge victorious.

The win improved McEnroe to 2-0 while Korda fell to 0-2.

In the day's previous action, Todd Martin of perennial Davis Cup fame defeated Wayne Ferreira in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. Martin now stands at 2-0 while Ferreira fell to 0-2. Jim Courrer followed by defeating Pat Cash, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 to improve his record to 2-0, while Cash fell to 0-2.

_________________________________________________



Sampras advances to Champions Cup final

May 5, 2007

BOSTON (AP) -- Pete Sampras advanced to the final in his first competitive tournament start in nearly five years, beating John McEnroe 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday night in the Champions Cup.

"I hit the ball better today than I did in my prime because of the bigger racket," Sampras said. "I think I can still play at a pretty high level. I can probably compete against anyone in the world today just one match, two sets."

After double-faulting in the opening game, Sampras rebounded to win the first three games of the first set. He never trailed in the second set, and took the lead for good after breaking to go up 2-1. The 35-year-old Sampras had six aces, and kept McEnroe off guard with an array of well-placed baseline shots.

"The guy hit the outside of the line like 20 times. It was unbelievable," McEnroe said. "It's incredible how many lines he hits. It's unbelievable -- I've never played a guy who can consistently do that."

Sampras will face defending Champions Cup champion Todd Martin, who advanced to the final with a 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 (tiebreaker) win over Jim Courier.

Sampras owns an 18-4 career record against Martin, including a win in the final of the 1994 Australian Open. They haven't played since 2002.

"I'll have a chance if I play like I did tonight," Martin said. "I would like to have more than a chance. In order to that, I won't be able to let my serve wane at all in the middle of the match."

Sampras, who will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in July, says he didn't touch a racket for nearly three years before picking up the sport again last summer to get in better shape.

Interesting articles-thanks for posting.

I am not surprised Sampras is doing so well - let's face it, he's only 35. I would be interested to see how he'd fare against some of the top ranked players now.
I don't agree that only Federer would stop him at SW19 - he'd really struggle against Senor Ferocious Returner: Nadal. He could beat Rafa, but it would be a challenge. Again, this is pure conjecture at this point.


I wish he would come back, if only to end the constant speculation!!

Thanks Wise and everyone.

Really in my mind there is no speculation. What is the speculation? Sampras retired 4 years ago.

Sampras will be playing a tournament in Greece soon.

Then there's the Hall of Fame induction in July and he may play an exhibition match on grass in Newport there too.

Just enjoy the fact that he's playing some good stuff in the seniors and really ignore the ones who try to turn everything into a negative situation in order to fullfill their own silly desires.

Just one request plaese - this emoticon roflmao is really getting on my nerves - it's boring! Common guys, come up with something more creative when posting comments.

Victory against McEnroe

http://www.centredaily.com/305/story/88605.html

He's clearly enjoying his tennis and giving everyone else a chance to, also - which is the main thing.

He's a legend, I would love to see some of the matches.

notes request - goes looking for new laugh smileys

Oh no! What will Sam say, those smileys are the basis of most of his posts :lol:





(joking Sam :P )

Highlight on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLQYKzJNHE

BTW: a last one about the FED-Pete saga ...In L'Equipe, i.e. the major sport newspaper in France, you can read today the following:

SAMPRAS S’ATTAQUERA À FEDERER. Ce ne seront que des exhibitions, mais on devrait retrouver Pete Sampras et Roger Federer face à face sur un court à Kuala Lumpur et à Macao avant la fin de l’année. C’est ce qu’a révélé le Suisse hier à Rome. Vainqueur de John McEnroe à Boston samedi soir (6-3, 6-4), et opposé en finale de ce tournoi vétéran à Todd Martin, Sampras dit, de son côté, se sentir « compétitif contre n’importe qui ».

Le Suisse, qui s’est entraîné avec lui en mars dernier, est quasiment de son avis : « Je pense qu’il vaut déjà les top 20, et les top 10 sur gazon. Il peut même être encore le meilleur sur un tournoi. La question est de savoir s’il peut tenir plus longtemps. Mais j’adorerais qu’il revienne sur le circuit. » Pour le moment, ce n’est pas au programme.

Translated very quickly: First paragraph: It seems that the two they have agreed to have two exo before the end of the year in Asia.

Second Paragraph: FED is saying that Pete will still be a top 20 and even a top 10 on grass if he decides to come back..

You can interpret in both way this last statement by FED: Either Pete (being a really Great Great champion as he was) is still very competitive-my interpretation- or the "era" is weak and it allows such a come back...The reality I guess is in the middle, but each of us can interpret as he wants. :rolleyes:

Thanks for posting this.

Federer saying he'd love it if Pete came back!!

Would be fabulous if they did stage this exhibition - I'd love to see it.

There would always be room for weak/strong debates if Sampras came back, but I'd like to think that a champion of Sampras worth would always be able to make an impact...he's only 35, after all and his weapons will still be sharper than some other players.

Forgeting the era debate for a moment (seems impossible as people are intent on talking about it unfortunately), I would love to see an exhibition match between Sampras and Nadal. Or even Sampras and Blake. Imagine Sampras v Fernando Gonzalez, the battle of the forehands! I think matches like that would be fun - the Sampras Federer thing is now unbelievably boring.

I know for instance Ferrero never played Sampras - I remember he made some nice comments about Pete in 2005 in a BBC question and answer session - no doubt the Spanish army - Corretja, Albert Costa, Carlos Moya would have told him about their experiences with Pete.

Obviously Pete has played Roddick and Ginepri a couple of times in the States recently. He even played a doubles exhibition with Nicole Vaidisova last month - that would have been great for Nicole because she has a good serve so I'm sure she would have been studying Sampras' serve up close and asked him questions so she could learn from him..

Sampras vs Nadal would be fascinating. I'd really love to see that.

laurie I do not see your point to be honest: Fed -Pete boring :yikes: :yikes: ..I mean it will be two great matches ahead...I mean they had the opportunity to play only once against the other and FED was not the current player we know...I guess it will be very interesting..But anyway we have different opinions: It seems this is the day to disagree everywhere (here and in another board ;) ;) )

They'll only be exhibition matches, but Pete Sampras and Roger Federer are going head to head on courts in Kuala Lumpur and Macao before the year is out, according to the Swiss yesterday in Rome. Sampras, victor over McEnroe in Boston on Saturday night and playing Todd Martin in the final there, believes he can still be competitive against any opponent.

Federer, who practised against Sampras in March, pretty much shares his opinion. "I think he's still top 20 and top 10 on grass. He could even be the best in a tournament. The question is, how long could he last on court, but I'd love it if he made a comeback." For the moment, that's not on the agenda.

Thanks for that TV (I provided the full translation since there were a couple of interesting things you missed out :) ) Namely, the last two sentences.

Anyway, am looking forward to the exhibitions - they should be good fun, although I'm sure both players will want to win quite badly.

Incidentally, Sampras defeated Martin in the final, although he had to save 3 match points do so, and it sounds like Martin choked on one of them! :yikes: It finished 6-3 5-7 11-9. Here's a match report:

______________________________________________

Sampras comes back for another win

For Pete Sampras, it was a day to live dangerously.

First, the future Hall of Famer faced a triple match point against Todd Martin in the final of the Champion's Cup event at Boston University on Sunday. Then, between beating Martin and grabbing the first-prize check of $50,000, Sampras shared some bad news with the Red Sox fans in the crowd.


"I don't know if you guys heard, but I believe the New York Yankees just signed Roger Clemens," Sampras said during the trophy ceremony as the crowd of 3,560 erupted in boos. "I'm serious."

On the day that the 35-year-old Sampras made a successful return on the seniors tour, another old-timer announced that he would be making a comeback that was much less welcome in Boston. Clemens, 44, said during the seventh-inning stretch at Yankee Stadium that he chose New York over the Red Sox for his latest comeback.

The fans at Agganis Arena probably missed the news while watching Sampras play Martin. So Sampras, a Dodgers fan, took the opportunity to tweak them.

"I'm just having fun," Sampras said after the match. "You know what, it's not that fun in this town. It's like a religion. I've never seen anything like it. They're passionate (in Los Angeles), but I've never seen anything like it is here."

Sampras hadn't played competitive tennis since winning the 2002 U.S. Open for his record 14th Grand Slam title. Retired at 31, he didn't pick up a racket or watch tennis on television for almost three years before deciding to play a limited schedule of exhibitions and Champion's Cup events.

His presence was a coup for the seniors tour and reminder for his opponents -- Petr Korda, Tim Mayotte, John McEnroe and Martin -- of why he dominated the regular tour when they were in their prime.

"Adding Sampras has certainly added some extra buzz," said Jim Courier, a competitor and organizer of the tour. "There's no question that when you bring in 14 major titles in one body, it's going to get tougher."

In a nod to the players knees, the matches are best-of-two sets, with a 10-point tiebreaker in case they split the sets. Sampras won the first set 6-3 and it was 5-5 in the second when Martin broke Sampras' serve, then held serve to tie it.

"I was thoroughly unprepared for a lot of what he had to offer," said Martin, the winner of last year's Boston event. "The only recourse I had was to turn it into a tennis match rather than a skills test, because his skills are better than mine."

Trailing 9-6, Sampras won five consecutive points. Martin was serving for the victory at 9-8 when he hit a backhand -- a "pretty easy" one, Sampras said -- into the net; Sampras took the victory at 11-9 when Martin returned a serve wide.

"Athletically, he's still closer to the speed he was when he was competing. The rest of us have depreciated more," Martin said. "I hit a few shots today, but I was reacting 9 times out of 10, if not 19 times out of 20."

Sampras had been doing his best to stay in shape playing 3-on-3 basketball twice a week in Los Angeles with friends, including former tour player Alex O'Brien. Beach volleyball and golf have also kept him busy when he wasn't chasing his two kids, 1 1/2 and 4 1/2 , around the house.

But now that he's back on the court, he plans to make a few appearances -- not the entire seven-event tour -- including Athens in two weeks. "I'm excited about taking my folks there, being a Greek-American," Sampras said.

Sampras went 3-0 in the round-robin before beating Martin in the final. McEnroe beat Courier 6-2, 6-3 in the consolation match.

Even so, the others were glad to have Sampras around.

"I think it adds a tremendous amount of legitimacy to what we're doing out here to have somebody who still plays at that level," Martin said. "For me, it's great to know that the best player in our era still wants to compete, still wants to beat me."

Several of todays top women players have said that they studies the Sampras serve as a model when they were doing their own.

Serena said it, I think Sharapova has as well, wouldn't be at all surprised if Vaidisova has tried to model her serve on Sampras'

Pete is clearly loving what he's doing at the moment - I only hope he feels the need to extend this to a few matches in the UK. I'd seriously love to see a match up exo with him and Rafa; I wonder how it would pan out. It's all too easy to say Rafa due to his returns and excruciating ability to grind people down, but there are so many elements of Pete's game I'd like to see him combat.

Well TV, the match between them may not be boring - but the absolute unbelievable amount of talk about these two guys is absolutely monumentally boring!

And perhaps that's why the 1990s is talkied about so much - there were so many rivalries, it wasn't just about two players as the ATP is about now.

Thank goodness I follow Svetlana's progress and womens tennis in general. I know Serena W19 would agree with me.

Other than that, how can we just talk about one man (Federer) all the time? That's bordering on obsession.

I started the thread to talk about Sampras been back and playing nice Tennis, and just as I had suspected - it wold be hijacked into a Federer Sampras discussion - it took all of two days for that to happen.

Other than that we have nothing to disagree about because as far as I'm concerned there is nothing to discuss on this now dull argument - which has been going since 2004.

Sorry to be so frank but that's how I feel about the whole thing.

Same. I'm unsure what Pete's plans for the immediate future are, but I imagine that now he's taken the drug again, he'll find it difficult just to step back into the tennis wilderness. No matter who he played, I'd go and watch him if it hapened in UK and possibly Europe too; sadly Malaysia and Macau are too far. I agree with your synopsis of the Nadal match-up; I feel the Spaniard is 10 times fitter than Sampras can be so Pete would have to be at his explosive best in order to try and finish the match off in 2 sets. Would be a very interesting match though, and I feel we'd see a fair amount of serve-volleying from Rafa (never a bad thing, he's actually a very good volleyer).

Oh and TV - I hope you noticed Ségo was outvoted in France :cry: I guess we'll have to wait a while before I am sharing your ideas and accepting your views ;)

Also TV, I have to say I'm not impressed with your comment on the other board.

Can you not have a discussion without saying someone's agressive if they don't agree with you? Are you that "sensitive"?

Boards like this are full of opinionated people, that's why they come on here. If that's too much for you then perhaps you should reconsider posting comments if reading other people's remaeks become too much for your "sensitivities."

laurie apologizes for my comments in the other board: I definitely overreact down there..In any case, down there I feel a little bit too much "under pressure" and this is why I decide to give up...

Here is definitely better to talk with people..Hence, my decision to no more post on that board...

Wise:

roflmao roflmao

Ok TV, thanks for that. I much prefer to have discussions too - this is supposed to be fun topics - we don't know eachother so there are no need for arguments.

Cheers

:kiss2:

Hear, hear - this is a great board for interesting, non vitriol based, discussions!

Back onto Sampras - how has his fitness been looking? I've literally hardly seen a shot, and I'd be interested to know how he's lasting the course?

Sara less , click on this link to to see last week's match highlights and interviews http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLQYKzJNHE

Serena W19, you are absolutely right - Serena and Sharapova studied the Sampras serve, Serena in particular has the taking of he racquet down to the floor, up to the backscratch position, decent knee bend and then exploding by pronating her wrist - hence her monumental technique on the second serve (the best in the women's game), Serena also has a great serve down the middle, combining slice and topspin with a good ball toss.

A lot of men in the ATP tour cannot duplicate technique - hence they serve fast flat serves, but slow second serves + fast flat serves which are easier to return because the ball is not loaded with spin and not moving away from the opponents consistently. Sampras and Becker revolutionized the serve by tossing the ball consistently to the left as opposed to the right and getting the same speed. A lot of coaches say toss to the right for a fast flat serve down the middle or for a serve to the forehand on the deuce and ad courts. Because they tossed the ball to the left and came over it, they combined slice with topspin so the ball kicked and swerved at the same upon pitching, that's why their serves were so deadly - and remember, Sampras had the same ball toss for the 1st and second serve so could go to the same place twice. As an opponent trying to read a 1st and 2nd serve ball toss (which is supposed to be different) that's pretty horrendous to have to deal with. McEnroe summed up that technique in 1993 by saying Sampras' serve is similar to his "inside out forehand, it's an inside out serve". Also, people who have that technique have excellent volleys because they put slice at all times on the volley by opening the racquet face like on the serve.

A lot of the Sampras techniques is lost on a lot of people because the skill level is unbelievably high and a lot couldn't hope to duplicate it - even many professionals. But that's why he was destined for legend status from when he was a kid with technique like that.

A lot of players today do not have good volleying technique because they do not have top class serving technique - raw speed due to syntehic strings and powerful racquets? - Yes. Top class technique and deadly fast second serves with an incredible amount of spin? - No