Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is a retired American tennis player and former World No. 1. During his 15-year career, he won 14 Grand Slam men's singles titles, and had a 203–38 win-loss record over 52 Grand Slam singles tournament appearances.[2]He is considered as one of the greatest players of all time.
He debuted on the professional tour in 1988 and played his last top-level tournament in 2002 when he won the US Open, defeating longtime rival Andre Agassi in the final.He was the year-end World No. 1 for six consecutive years (1993–1998), a record for the open era and tied for third all-time. His seven Wimbledon singles championships is a record shared with William Renshaw. His five US Open singles titles is an open-era record shared with former World No. 1 player Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer.
TENNIS:-growing up in palos california ,pate started tennis at the age of seaven and grew up idolizing the play of the great roa laver by age 11 pate would have the chance to pratice with by idol .under the tutelege of early coach fischer ,pate made a name of himself as an up and coming star while competing inthe junior against the likes of david wheaton , andrre agassi , jim courier and michel chan . pate joined the professional tour at age of 16 in 1988 , won his first pro tournament on feb. 12 , 1990 at philadelphia and reached the no-1 ranking for the first time in his career on april 12 , 1993.
Early life and career
Pete Sampras was born in Washington, D.C., and is the third child of Sammy and Georgia Sampras. His mother immigrated from Sparta, Greece, while his father was born in the United States to a Greek immigrant father and a Jewish mother.[6][7] Greek culture played a big role in his upbringing. Pete attended regular services of the Greek Orthodox Church on Sundays.
Rivalry with Andre Agassi
Sampras won 20 of the 34 matches he played against Agassi.[28]
The 1990 US Open was their first meeting in a Grand Slam tournament final. Agassi was favored because he was ranked World No. 4 compared to the World No. 12 ranking of Sampras and because Agassi had defeated Sampras in their only previously completed match. However, Agassi lost the final to Sampras in straight sets.
Playing style
Sampras was an all-court player who would often serve-and-volley. In the early years of his career, when not serving, his strategy was to be offensive from the baseline, put opponents in a defensive position, and finish points at the net. In his later years, he became even more offensive and would either employ a chip-and-charge strategy; just chip back the return and run up to the net, waiting for a volley or try to hit an offensive shot on the return and follow his return to the net.
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