Sampras sets record with historic win
July 9, 2000
LONDON, July 9 (Reuters)(DS) - Records come and go in sport but Pete Sampras set one in the Wimbledon final on Sunday that will almost certainly survive him.
Thirteen Grand Slam
titles won over a decade the American has dominated is just reward for the
greatest grasscourt player in history and arguably the finest player the
game has known. He equalled Roy Emerson's record of 12 titles at Wimbledon
last year and moved ahead of the 30-year-old mark on Sunday by beating another
Australian Pat Rafter 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-2.
"Time will tell if it (the record) will be broken. I think in the modern game it could be difficult. It's a lot of commitment, a lot of good playing at big times," Sampras said. "I mean the next person might be eight years old hitting at a park somewhere around the world.
"You never know. There's guys that are great players that could possibly do it. But it's not easy."
It was Sampras's seventh title - in eight years - equalling the record of seven set in the 19th century by William Renshaw.
NEVER LOST A FINAL
He has never lost a Wimbledon final and, of the four Grand Slam tournaments,
he has only missed out at the claycourt French Open where his power serve
cannot blow opponents away like it does on the Wimbledon Centre Court he
calls his home from home.
Quiet and uncharismatic, Sampras has earned respect for his single-minded approach to the game -- his peers voted him the greatest player of the last 25 years three years ago -- but it's fair to say fans have not naturally warmed to him.
Sampras has won 63 titles since turning professional in 1988 and accumulated $40 million in prize money but he does not have the looks of a Borg, the shot-making of a McEnroe or the agility of a Becker.
He has also profited from being at his peak at a time of changing generations when only the mercurial Andre Agassi, whose form has fluctuated wildly, has equalled him.
Perhaps because of the lack of public adulation, records mean a lot to the 28-year-old and Grand Slams have always been the big prize.
After the 1998 season -- when he almost ruined his health in a successful attempt to remain number one for six years running -- he took his foot off the pedal and has relaxed more. "Pete has come out of his shell a bit more and I like him now," Rafter said last week.
HARD GRIND
But the grind of those early years on tour have increasingly taken their
toll on Sampras and the painful shin injury picked up 10 days ago is the
latest in a long line of problems that have sidelined him over the past
18 months.
Sampras had stressed that he did not believe Wimbledon 2000 was his last chance to break Emerson's record but the fact he invited his parents to watch him for the first time at Wimbledon indicated he believed his time was running out.
"I never looked at breaking the record as pressure. I looked at it as an opportunity that I would love to do it," he said. "It hasn't hit me. It won't hit me for months - I'm just kind of spinning a little bit."
Now the record has been achieved, there is only one goal remaining -- winning the French Open and moving alongside Agassi, Emerson, Rod Laver, Fred Perry and Don Budge as the winner of all four Grand Slams.
"From an achievement standpoint, I've done what I've wanted to do. I've been number one for a while, I've won Slams. Obviously the French is the one that's missing.
"But I still love competing and I love playing. I love being in situations like today where you feel nervous before you go out there, you have anxiety but you find a way to get through it."