dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Sampras is going to get mashed by RF.
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*Official* Tennis Thread
- Thread starter Mister Wright
- Start date
he lost but didn't exactly get "mashed"...
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Federer was half asleep.
did you watch it? the scores for the 2nd match were even closer, going to two tie-breaks and the report on cnn doesn't talk about any lack of effort on federer's part...
Pratters
Cricket, Lovely Cricket
No he didn't watch it. He was sleeping with Federer's half asleep half.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
Yes I watched it. If you think Federer was playing 100% you're a fool. Was almost jogging around the court for the first set.
Sampras played well, no doubt. Better than I thought he would anyway.
Sampras played well, no doubt. Better than I thought he would anyway.
Sanz
Hall of Fame Member
One sided arguments like this are foolish. Yeah Roger was not playing 100%, what makes you think that Sampras was ? Sampras had nothing to lose, Roger had everything to lose. If Roger had lost his whole legacy would have been questioned. Infact the very fact that these matches went so close, makes me think how many Gandslams Roger would have won in Pete Sampras era.
or vice versa...
Sanz
Hall of Fame Member
May be but the point was Sampras had a lot competition in his playing days, Federer barely has any. Not his fault but still a valid point.
BTW match is on Youtube.
agassi has played both enough times and has clearly said he considers federer better...
who all were sampras' competition if you consider his entire playing period? agassi, courier(the worst multiple slam winner i ever saw play, even considering his consistency and a good forehand, it has always mystified me how he managed to win so much and in any case, he was not a patch on sampras as far as talent and level of play goes), edberg and becker towards the latter 1/3rd of their careers(they still had excellent performances after sampras started his career, but their careers were definitely on the downslope and by the time sampras peaked into the kind of champion he became, both were more or less gone)...there were one surface wonders like ivanisevic(grass), bruguera, muster et al(clay) and a few one slam wonders like chang, krajicek etc...at the height of sampras' game, on grass and hard courts, how many players were a real threat to him? agassi was a threat outside of slams where he had almost all his wins against sampras, in slams he was almost always mowed down by pistol pete, there was the spanish armada on clay(where he was never strong enough anyway)...anyone else in that list likely to bring him down when he was on his game? the fact is of all that competition, agassi was the only other genuinely great player of that era(if you don't consider edberg and becker as his true contemporaries) and even he was a couple of notches down...
now consider federer's competition: nadal, surely developing into one of the greatest clay courters of all time(the only thing that stands between federer and roland garros) and also developing his game on other surfaces enough to be a threat as he has shown at wimbledon...djokovic, developing into an exceptional all-court player and will provide more and more competition for federer as time goes on...other competition, safin(i know he is fading away now) and gasquet(when their heads are screwed on right), two of the most talented players ever to pick up a racquet...agassi, admittedly towards the end of his career...a plethora of solid to excellent players like roddick, hewitt, nalbandian, ferrero, murray etc...now federer owns most of these players(except for nalbandian, nadal and probably djokovic(as in he doesn't go into federer matches expecting to lose and has actually beaten him)), that doesn't mean that they are bad, in my opinion, most of them are as good or even better players than anyone in the sampras era except sampras and agassi, it's just that federer has been that good...
if they had played in the same era, neither of them would have got to a record number of slams but we would have seen some titanic battles between two of the greatest players of all time...
Sanz
Hall of Fame Member
I think you have forgotten a lot of names Sampras played against. Here are a few :-
Early in his career :- Borris Becker, Stefen Edberg, Lendl
Most of His career - Agassi, Kafelnikov, Rafter, Goran, Scud, Krajicek (last two on grass), Rios, Michael Chang, Todd Martin, Thomas Muster, Berguera, Courier, Guga, Moya (last few on clay)
Late in his career - Marat Safin, Roger Federed, Leyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick
Agree Federer had tough competition early on with Sampras, Agassi, etc still being there and Andy Roddick, Hewitt, Safin etc emrging as the young talents, but since then Hewitt/Roddick have not become much better and Safin has not played much at the top level of his game. Only in last few years we have seen Nadal and but apart from Nadal I dont see anyone as good as the like of Chang, Rafter etc.
ohtani's jacket
State Vice-Captain
How was Federer competition for Sampras? They played once on the ATP tour.
The Baconator
International Vice-Captain
This is about the most appropriate to put this....
John McEnroe in CSI:NY. Playing himself and a guy who happens to look just like him. Oh the hilarity.
John McEnroe in CSI:NY. Playing himself and a guy who happens to look just like him. Oh the hilarity.
Mister Wright
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Permanent of temporary return?
Can't see anyone beating Federer. Predicting Hewitt to do well though.
Magrat Garlick
Rather Mad Witch
Dunno. Can't see Gonzalez going far, but Feds seems to struggle with Spanish-speaking players
Simon
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Dunno, we'll have to see, I'm back for now at least...
Federer will probably win, hopefully someone comes out fresh and can possibly knock him off. Nalbandian anyone???