A Blast From the Past
April 27, 2007
Ladies and gentlemen, in a few short weeks the Boston area will be hit by an influx of sports legends. No, I am not talking about a Red Sox-Yankees game or a 1986 Celtics championship team reunion. I am talking about the Champions Cup Boston tennis event. It is the first stop on the Outback Champions Series tour. Retired professional tennis players play exhibitions against each other and the proceeds are donated to charity.
Big deal, you must be saying to yourself, this stuff happens all the time; over-the-hill athletes trying to make some money to continue feeding their lavish lifestyles. Well, this isn’t just any exhibition. This event marks the return to tennis of the most successful tennis player of all time, the great Pete Sampras.
For those of you too young (or perhaps too ignorant of tennis) to remember him in his prime, Sampras won 14 Grand Slam singles titles in his career.
Playing against some of the best players of all time, Sampras served and volleyed his way into the record books. He was atop the ATP rankings for a record six consecutive years from 1993-1998. In fitting fashion, Sampras retired after winning his 14th Grand Slam, the 2002 U.S. Open.
Sampras’ competition this time around should look familiar, as he will play longtime rival Jim Courier and other tennis greats such as John McEnroe and Mats Wilander. The three players combined for 19 Grand Slam titles, so unlike previous exhibitions, the competition should be intense. Sampras, who was recently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in January, is considered by many to be the greatest tennis player ever.
Sampras’s return coincides with the continuing domination of Roger Federer in the current professional game. The debate continues over who is the better tennis player. Sampras has 14 Grand Slam titles to Federer’s 10, but Federer is only 25. Their only head to-head-match, the Round of 16 match at Wimbledon in 2001, was an instant classic. Federer broke Sampras’s 31 match winning streak with a dramatic five set victory.
But that match was at the tail end of Sampras’s career and the very beginning of Federer’s, so it was not a very good indication who the better player was. Instead the match was almost a passing of the torch from the greatest player of the late ’80s and ’90s to the greatest player of the new century.
Perhaps their similarity is their dislike for playing on clay. The one blemish on Sampras’s career was the fact that he never won a French Open title (the only Grand Slam played on a clay surface). Federer would be able to stake claim to the best tennis player ever if he could win the French Open, but he too appears to be mortal on clay, losing to emerging star Rafael Nadal the past two years. It appears that the career paths of Federer and Sampras will be eerily similar.
But while their paths may look similar, their playing styles could not be more different. Sampras was always known for his booming serve and his heavy forehand. He would often revert to serve and volley tactics to use his serve and his quickness to overpower his opponent and end points quickly. On the grass of Wimbledon and the hard courts of Flushing Meadows, Sampras rode the support of the crowd to victory. He was a very emotional player and good at taking the momentum from his opponent and using it to propel himself to victory. He was a warrior on the court, in the truest sense of the word.
On the other hand, Federer is the quiet king of tennis. He rarely shouts during a match, preferring to let his racquet do the talking. He never lets his emotions escape him. He seems to exude confidence on the court, an aura that surely intimidates his opponents (even if that isn’t his intention). Federer gracefully moves around , using all different types of shots; there doesn’t seem to be a weakness in his skill. He is simply dominating when he’s in the zone, and the scary part is that he is only 25 and he can improve so much before retiring.
The debate can go on and on over who is the better player, but the most important thing is that they have both become sports icons. Not just tennis icons, but sports icons.
The casual sports fan knows Pete Sampras and Roger Federer by name. This greatly helps tennis’ exposure in the United States. Tennis has slowly dropped in popularity among America’s youth, in part because of the lack of exposure to the fans. Three of the four Grand Slam tournaments are on other continents and there aren’t any high profile Americans other than James Blake and Andy Roddick. Tennis is a lifelong sport that even the average athlete can play. It’s events like the upcoming exhibition and the continued coverage of Federer’s quest to become the greatest player ever that will hopefully increase tennis’ visibility and popularity among American sports fans.