18 May 2013
Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras reflect on French Open failure
Becker, Edberg, Sampras missed career grand slam due to Paris
By Prakash
Back in the days when tennis surfaces were more varied and different, winning all the four majors was quite a difficult task. Andre Agassi became only the fifth player do so on the men's side in 1999 and now Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have already done it. And Novak Djokovic is a title away in Paris from accomplishing the feta as well.
Many legends in previous eras missed out on the French Open, among them John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Samras.
And some of these former legends spoke about their inability to win the French Open to CNN's Open Court.
Stefan Edberg: "I tried to win the French Open and I tried to prepare the best way we could and obviously I had a great chance in 1989 when I was playing a young kid Michael Chang in the final. It was a match that maybe I should have won. I was in the lead and got him, but somehow he got out of the grip and he won in five sets. But at the time I thought I played a great tournament and I thought I would get another chance to win it, but I never really got another chance after that. The difficult thing with winning on clay was playing well for two weeks. You know I could win a tournament that lasted for one week, but I think playing serve-and-volley for two weeks, that was the tough part of it: to play well for two weeks on the clay and that's what you need at the French Open."
Boris Becker: "With my style of play, I was an attacking player, I was a serve-and-volley player and that's not perfect on the clay and that's when I was big and heavier than some of the other players, and on the clay you slide around and your defensive strategy has to be better than your offensive. So on the clay you play more defensive. Compared to my success at the other grand slams, the French was always my poorest. Trust me, I tried everything to win. I wasn't good enough. I mean I really tried to win it. I played in three semi-finals, but never in a final. But Wilander, Agassi and Lendl were better. It wasn't unlucky or so. They were better."
Pete Sampras: "I feel like I could have done better. Maybe I could have tried a bigger racket at the French Open. I could have worked a little harder. I mean, I worked hard but you know you always look back at your career and feel: 'I should have done this, I should have done that.' I have no regrets, but I can certainly pick apart my moments. But, all in all, I won 14 majors, and I am pretty happy about that."