September 24, 2009
Sampras' nudge led to change in format
By Rick Bonnell
14-time Grand Slam winner to compete in Champions Series
tennis at The Palisades.
Pete Sampras has reached that age when the quality of his tennis must trump the quantity of his tennis.
His back hurt. His hip hurt. So he told his buddy Jim Courier, player-founder of the Outback Champions Series, that he had misgivings about playing four matches in five days.
When Sampras talks, people listen. This week's Breezeplay Championships at the Palisades has switched from a round-robin format to a single-elimination draw. Sampras --- one of the best ever --- gets a bye into Saturday's semifinals, expecting to put on a show this weekend.
"When you play sporadically, things happen. You're going to break up a little" physically, Sampras explained. "It's a good schedule for me; it was a nice event when I played it two years ago, and I wanted to keep playing."
Not that Sampras was dictating --- other players had similar concerns --- but Sampras, 38, has that sort of juice, as the former record-holder for the most men's Grand Slam singles titles. He thought his record of 14 Slams would hold up longer than it did, but Sampras was there for the Wimbledon final in July, when Roger Federer reset the standard.
It was great fun, Sampras said, with arguably the top three players of the modern era --- himself, Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg --- there to applaud Federer's accomplishment.
"Roger is such a great guy --- a class act --- that once he got to that final, I felt I should be there," Sampras said. "All those legends together made for great TV."
It also begged the question Michael Jordan was repeatedly asked at his basketball Hall of Fame induction: Is there any reliable way to look through generations, and establish the best ever in any sport?
"The circumstances are all so different," Sampras described. "Laver won two Grand Slams (holding all four titles in the same calendar year) six years apart. That's fantastic, but at the same time, I don't know that the competition was as deep as these days."
"And you could go all the way back to Don Budge (in the 1930s). How do you really compare?"
Sampras has grown to appreciate just how fortunate he is to be in the same generation with Courier, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Todd Martin. The same guys he played juniors against joined him in the world top 10 and forced the best out of him.
"I saw Jim get to No. 1 and that allowed me to think, 'I'm just as good as Jim. I can be No. 1, too,'" Sampras said.
"And then Andre made his run and in every case, we pushed each other. It was a really healthy thing --- we were all friends, all respected each other, but I know that every time I played another American, it counted for extra --- I didn't want to lose to those guys."
Sampras doubts one country will ever again produce that much talent in one generation. But Sampras' experience has him believing Federer is luckier than he probably realizes to be challenged by Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and new U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro.
"It definitely adds to the legacy," he said. "For Roger to be pushed is so important. He probably wants to have it as easy as possible --- majors are so tough regardless --- but when you look back on it, you realize how historic it is to have been challenged by the best."