I know its an exhibtion but I am staying up to watch my idol Pete Sampras take on the world number one Roger Federer! anyone care to join me?! :)

Moved to the live scoring forum :ok:

:admin:

Thanx Dinky wasnt sure if to post it here as it isnt an ATP event! will you be up following the game with me?!

I am off to bed.

Good night!


;)

Anybody still watching this?
When Federer walked in they played the music of DarthVader.
When Sampras walked in they played the music of Superman.

Unnecessary hype.

Yeah but it's entertainment so why not have some fun?

I watched it with a colleague here (in NY state) on the television in the end - thanks again to Wise for the link, which allowed us to find the relevant TV station. :ok:

It was a good match in the end, although somewhat slow to start. Fed basically let off in the second set, which Pete won on a tie-break. But after breaking early in the third, Roger got careless, and found himself 5-2 down, which could have easily cost him the match, given that Pete was still serving extremely well. In the end, Fed won in the tie-break, 8-6 I believe.

The end of the third set ended up being quite competitive. Sampras's serve really still is very strong, helped by an extremely fast surface (which was clearly chosen to "give the old man a chance" :) ). The latter also meant that there were only very few actual rallies.

Sampras's volleys also came back near the end, while in the first set they did not look so great. Still, I was surprised by Sampras's tactics, coming in on virtually every point, even when his approach wasn't particularly good. Maybe he felt the speed of the court allowed for it, maybe he just knew he couldn't stay with Fed from the baseline. But on those occasions when he did stay back, he managed to come up with some very nice angled shots (although naturally his speed couldn't really keep up with Roger).

All in all, it was still very much an exhibition match from Fed's point of view - he was far more relaxed than he would have been otherwise, and in a real match I don't think he would have lost that second set.

On the other hand, in the third set, particularly at the end, it was quite competitive, and Pete showed that he can still be very dangerous when his serve is working well (and, of course, when he's only playing one match rather than a whole tournament).

Anyway, :clap: and :bow: to two great champions who gave us a nice spectacle. I think Pete said they might do this again in London, so we'll see ...

I hope they do it in London! I would be there like a shot!!!

Yeah so would I if I could get a tickets. I bet they will be gone before you know it.

I know, they would go quick. Have to keep our eyes peeled to see if it happens.

A piece of Fed's interview. Nicely put by Roger! ;)

Q. Roger, there was implication that one of the so called bloggers that basically you sort of eased off to get it into a third set, and that Sampras really cannot compete with you anymore. Is there anything to that, or is that guy just making up stuff?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, it's such a quick surface, you know. We don't usually play on this kind of quick surfaces, so for me to break Pete he's not going to serve many double faults so I have to come up with a good passing shot or a good return.
It's hard to keep that up on a regular basis. His second serve is so good, as well. I really thought I had a chance towards the end of the second set and sort of missed it, and maybe could have hit one passing shot instead of chipping it. That was it.
And then in the tiebreaker he served out of his mind. I thought I was in the control in the beginning of the third, and all of a sudden he was up with a break. It was goes very quick against him, and could tell why he was such a phenomenal player, because he could take everything away from you.

I think Fedeer is actually lucky Sampras is 10 years older than him

;)

... or Sampras may have been lucky to be born 10 years before Federer. :P

Well I suppose we can go on all day about this one - so I won't

They are both lucky they avoided eachother!

:P ;)

:dancer1: