Federer Lets Sampras Win in Macau
You rememeber when you were a kid and you fantasized about athletes from different eras squaring off against each other? What would happen if Nolan Ryan pitched to Babe Ruth? Who would win a 1-on-1 game between Jordan and Bird? Would Ali in his prime beat Tyson in his? Well, tennis fans in China’s Special Gambling Region, or Macau, came pretty close to realizing one of these fantasies Saturday when the old world number one Pete Sampras squared off against the current world number one Roger Federer in an exhibition match at the Venetian. A half-bald, 36-year-old Sampras defeated the world’s top ranked player Roger Federer in straight sets (7-6, 6-4). While Sampras retired 5 years ago after winning the 2002 U.S. Open to play golf and spend time with his gorgeous wife, his serve on the fast surface at the Venetian proved too much for Federer Saturday. The Macau match was the third of a three-match Asian exhibition series this week between the two players. Federer beat Sampras in straight sets in each of the previous two matches — 6-4 6-3 in Seoul on Tuesday and 7-6 7-6 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Many tennis fans and writers speculate that the only way a 36-year-old Sampras could beat Federer is if Federer let Sampras beat him. One blogger on TennisX wrote this following Federer’s defeat Saturday:
Sure, the series was interesting to watch, fun to speculate the “what ifs”, but as I’ve said before, the only thing this it proves (or proved) is that both Federer and Sampras like the cash. If you want to argue Pete’s serve could get him into the Top 20, fine I’ll listen to that, that’s about it. While Sampras clearly can still bring the heat on his serves, Federer appeared content hitting second serves to keep things interesting and competitive. And while Sampras labored with his movement, especially laterally, Federer appeared to be a full step if not two steps slower than he was just a week earlier in Shanghai.
Sampras, a true tennis gentleman, chalked up the victory as nothing more than Federer’s fatigue from a near perfect season in which he won 3 grand slams and the Shanghai Masters. He made no mention of Roger throwing the final match in Macau. Is Pistol Pete prime for a comeback? Sampras told the press after the match, “Let’s not get carried away. I had my time in the 90s.” Yes you did Pete. And you also had a lot more hair.
•Xinhua: Sampras Defeats Federer in Macau
•Photo: Xinhua
It’s nonsense to think thst just because Sampras won the third of the exhibition matches against Federer that he is now capable of a comeback!! Sampras looked like a 30-something on the court and there is no way I could see him performing at a pro level on successive days of a tournament (not even a challenger). He struggled with his fitness throughout his career, even when he was at his oeak, so please don’t continue with this idiotic notion that he can make a comeback.
My thought on the exhibition series is that the matches were not taken seriously by either player - they were a source of entertainment for thousands of people willing to pay good money to see a former no. 1 take on the current no. 1. The matches were a novelty - nothing more, nothing less.
Frankie, you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. Kidding. Those are some good points. But someone did make an interesting call (was it Courier or McEnroe) that if men’s matches were 2 out of 3 sets, as opposed to 3 out of 5, that Sampras would still be ranked in the top three or four since success would be more about fundamentals as opposed to both fundamentals AND conditioning.