If his first serve was not enough of a weapon, his second was a well-disguised mix of power, placement, guile and guts.If there is going to be another Sampras, he had better have great athleticism to match his grand ambition.“What I always try to explain to my friends who don’t know tennis that well is that it’s a lot like pitching and hitting,” Annacone said. The match featured no breaks of serve, with Sampras edging Agassi, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5). Agassi won the 2003 Australian Open for the eighth Grand Slam title of his career. It’s a progression. The next time the pair met at a Grand Slam final was at the From their first ATP match to their 1995 US Open final match, their head-to-head was tied 8–8. Lleyton Hewitt defeated Pete Sampras 7–6 , 6–1, 6–1 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 2001 US Open. "Two great players playing great at the same time. If you didn’t do something with the return, he hit the ball so cleanly and then you were never going to be in the point.”That night, Sampras served 25 aces to Agassi’s 18, not a terribly relevant statistic in an all-tie-breaker match that was decided by a winner here, an unforced error there.
Roddick won his first and only Grand Slam event in New York that summer, and no American man has won one since.In Sampras’s informed opinion, the country has lost its collective nerve, given in to the belief that technology has made serve-and-volley an impractical and antiquated tactic.“You hear it over and over — the rackets are too strong, the guys hit the ball from the baseline too hard, the Wimbledon grass is too slow — and I get tired of hearing it,” he said. In his 2001 match against Agassi, one of the game’s greatest returners, the acrobatic Sampras went to the net behind not only his first serve, but also his second. 141, and it marked a significant shift in their rivalry. (W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (P) postponed; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; (NH) not held. It makes sense that the guy with the ball in his hand would have the advantage.”Not by much on that memorable quarterfinal night in 2001. “In baseball you’re a really good hitter if you hit .300. “That doesn’t often happen.”Under breezy conditions, Sampras reminded everyone of what usually happened when the great serve-and-volley player brought his A game to a match against the classic counterpuncher. Struggling with his conditioning at that point in his career, Sampras was exhausted and knew that a fifth set would favor Agassi, a fitness freak. A rising Australian, Lleyton Hewitt, called Sampras and Agassi “the two guys I idolized growing up.”Marat Safin, a hard-hitting Russian who dominated Sampras in the 2000 Open final, said of the two American elders, “Many things to learn from them.”Unfortunately, the moral of Sampras’s 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) victory was lost, especially to the next generation of Americans now struggling for traction in a sport dominated by Europeans.Sampras, 30, wore baggy white shorts. “But when they say you can’t play serve-and-volley in today’s era, I think that’s a lot of malarkey. I look at Nadal standing 10 feet behind the baseline, and as great as he is getting to balls, I’d take my chances kicking him out wide and coming in behind it.”Alas, Sampras is resigned to serve-and-volley being “pretty much extinct, basically gone,” along with the opportunity for young Americans to play to their fast hardcourt strength and create their own tour niche.In his 2001 match against Agassi, one of the game’s greatest returners, the acrobatic Sampras went to the net behind not only his first serve, but also his second. It has been named as one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time.