February 2001
Male Player of 2000
By Allen St. John
It isn't in Pete Sampras' nature to announce to the world, "I am the greatest player of all time." But in his speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-racquet way, that's exactly what he did in 2000. Sampras' highlight, of course, was winning Wimbledon for the seventh time in eight years, breaking his and Roy Emerson's Grand Slam mark of 12 titles with a lucky 13th.
That victory, in what would appear to be the twilight of his career, gave the record-obsessed sports world an opportunity to finally give Pete his props. Suddenly, he was tennis' answer to Michael Jordon and Tiger Woods, the kind of athlete who does things we've never seen before and may never witness again. "I didn't look at breaking the record as pressure," Sampras said at the U.S. Open. "I looked at it as an opportunity."
But as his enduring genius came into focus, fans caught glimpses of a Sampras they hadn't seen for a decade. Sure, he performed better at the four Grand Slams than any other player, backing up his Wimbledon win by reaching the Australian Open semifinal and the U.S. Open final. Yet the man who made this game look so easy in years past had more than his share of difficulties.
Sometimes it was Sampras' increasingly fragile 29-year-old body that betrayed him (a hip-flexor injury spoiled his 37- ace effort against Andre Agassi in the Aussie Open semis). At other times, it was shockingly clear that tennis' greatest shot-maker simply didn't have the shots on a given day (see the U.S. Open final against Marat Safin).
But even when his body or his game let him down -- especially then -- Sampras competed as well as he ever had, clawing his way into tight matches with a tenacity Jimmy Connors would have applauded. Down a set and trailing 1-4 in the second-set tiebreaker of the Wimbledon final against Patrick Rafter, a hobbled Sampras (he had tendinitis in his shins throughout the fortnight) won six of the next seven points, then dominated the rest of the match.
He pulled the same Houdini trick against nemesis Richard Krajicek in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows. As Sampras cracked ace after ace and hit winner after winner in the kinds of situations that caused lesser champions to melt, it was as though he was letting us in on a secret:
Tennis isn't about 125 mph bullets down the T or running forehand passing shots; it's about grace under pressure. Which is why Sampras is 13-3 in Grand Slam finals, and why he's not only TENNIS' Male Player of the Year, but also a player for the ages.