The best tennis player ever in my book. I'm still a fan after decades of being one. Have a good life Pete and kudos to your wife!

The greatest tennis player I ever saw. Sampras played in a golden era, and proceeded to destroy the very best that wonderful era had to offer. The only smudge on his wonderful record is never quite turning up at roland garros, but it takes absolutely nothing away from him being the greatest player the game has ever witnessed

When people bash Pete's clay court prowess,they often forget his wins he did on his back , for US Davis cup vs. Russia He did it all ! 👍⚡🌎🌍

He was and still is the KING 👑 of tennis 🎾

Sampras is the GOAT. End of story. A true champ with best serve of all time. He took tennis to another level with his speed, groundstrokes, serve and volley. He got it all. The surfaces these day may be slow and all players are ultra defensive, but back then it was all kind of players. A much tougher era. From players like Andre Agassi to Boris Becker. There was all kind of players. And Pete beat them all. You can't ask for more. Simply the best.

His dad possessed the greatest unibrow ever

I can’t believe that his Dads Unabrow was so awesome and I never knew this

I am 41 I was allways in Love with pete Sampras from Tv 🙈. I am still single😟

Great share, Thanks.

THANK YOU for sharing this with us. Pete Sampras is so beautiful!! He is the epidome of a Greek God!

What an amazing Person! Thank you

Not only different types of players through the 90's, but for the last decade, all the surfaces are slow. Even grass is for baseliners now.

Sampras was very underrated. He was the undisputed GOAT of his era. Nobody can claim that title except Laver in his era.

I used to love and admire this man a lot !!

he's a legend, a true legend

Met him in person... Really down to earth guy...

somebody from switzerland who has won 15 GS's in just 6 years, held no. 1 rankin for 4.5 consecutive years with 5 straight wins in US open, wimbledon and 4 straight finals in roland garros , 3 aus open with 22 consecutive semi finals is known as the greatest tennis player ever..has somebody heard about him?

Present players don't have compettion as Sampras had against Edberg, Becker, Lendl, Agassi, Courier, Kafelnikov, Safin, Kuerten

Competition in 90 was definately harder than Roger's era. If you ever watched tennis for longer than 10 years, you should know that. One of the major reasons Pete's era was harder was because of versatility in players he had to face. Day in and out, he had to face baseliners, natural vollyers and all court players. There was no omni-solution for Pete, he always had to adjust his tactics. Roger? Throughout his entire GS regime, he only beat baseliners. Sorry, but that is a fact.

What a genius Im sorry that I lost interest in Tennis during his era didn't give him the respect he deserved was always for Andre , but he will always be the last great serve volleyer .

Simply the best.

Remember Pete in Aus Open years ago, sadly didn't realise his brilliance at the time, and what a legacy he left.Re whos better? Who really cares? Different game, style of play and focus on slower courts.In terms of who Fed or Pete had to play, there are ALL awesome players.Love to see a 2012 Sampras.Imagine a big flattish forehand banging deep big shots and assualting the net. Wonder whether this style of play may come back? Don't undertand why there are so many haters who post utter rubbish.

@supers789 no, it just seems like present players don't have the competition because only federer and nadal win the slams (of course excepting the odd djoker/delpo hot run) and dominate

@mariomarcano Ferrero in his prime (short as it was) was good on Hardcourts and has had ok results on grass. Muster became world number 1 without ever going past the first round at wimbledon.

@nocode61 the lack of serve & volleyers has 2 do with the court speed & racquet tech than the player calibre the courts have slowed down that the veterans now in the senior tour say it'd be suicidal to try to S&V now.. Fed managed to reach 4 RG finals yet pete lost 2 philippoussis, Delgado (ranked 97th) & never passed the semis. the slower the courts the worse pete plays. How many GS would he have won now if his biggest weapon his S&V was taken away?

Class acts who happen to also be incredble athletes: Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods, Michelle Kwan, Nancy Kerrigan ... to name just a few.

@Steve0904 Also pertaining to Becker and Edberg, they were older than Pete and nearing the end of their primes at the time Pete started beating them regularly.

yes... ask Rafa for confirmation... 21-10 and counting.

@kuttusan The fact is, if Pete was better than he turned out to be you wouldn't be calling all those guys legitimate competition. I only count the first 5 or 6 you mentioned anyway.

BEST PLAYER OF ALL TIEMES.

Agassi was so cute

@supers789 I agree with you.

@BuddhaShiva1 but you're assuming he'd play rafa in the same court speed as the 90s...today's slower hardcourts petes serve & volley would be neutralised and not as affective as the 90s...

LOL Jeff Tarango!!! Agassi accused him of cheating in a juniors match in his autobiography.

@aleksandrpondios Did you actually read my post or understand what i was replying to. it was 3 months ago and i was replying to a poster who said competition in the the mid 90s was better than now. i pointed out the difference between competition and competitiveness. Just because their is less competitiveness dosent mean their is less competition. BTW i agree with everything you said but the acomplishments of Federer and Nadal shouldnt be questioned.

I don't care if Roger Federer wins 32 Slams. I don't care what the press have to say or anyone for that matter. Pete Sampras was the greatest tennis player this planet has ever seen.

Τα πιο χαρακτηριστικά φρύδια σε οποιοδήποτε άθλημα

@kuttusan I often find people to overrate Pete's competition tbh. I like Pete but people look at Becker and Edberg and say 6 slams each. What they don't say is that many of those came before Pete's prime. Courier has 4 slams but again all of those came before 1993 and 2 of them were on clay where Pete wasn't great. Lendl was getting old and Andre rarely beat Pete at a slam in his prime. The rest of the players you mentioned were no better than Roddick, Safin or Hewitt.

@deltok when one of them can win 14 major so we can talk about true talent...

that does not make the quality of opponents harder though...

@BuddhaShiva1 in your dreams... I was a strong fan of Sampras, and yet I'm still, but in my life I have never seen a player with a class and perfection as Federer is... Roger Federer is the G.O.A.T.

@mathiyus Fed was still in diapers when he played Rafter.

the biography from andre agassi is better XD

Ummm... Ferrero only won 1 Master Series on hardcourt (Madrid in 2003)... Muster won 8 Master Series, 1 on carpet courts and 1 on hardcourt (Miami in 1997)...

Most tennis fans have been swarmed and mesmerized by the accomplishments of The Big 3, but when Sampras’ career is analyzed thoroughly we are looking at one of the greatest of all times. I also think the same goes for Borg. Both belong in the GOAT debate alongside The Big 3. Why neither of them completed a career Slam ? As far as Borg goes, back in the 70s the top players very seldom competed in the Aussie Open. It was played on December, so the only motivation to go there was to have previously won the other 3 majors. Had Borg won the US Open in one of the 4 finals he lost, he would have made the trip down under to procure a Calendar Slam. Same goes for McEnroe in 84, had he not lost the RG final to Lendl in the most incredible of fashions. Longevity counts when comparing athletes of a same generation. 40 years ago a ruptured meniscus spelled retirement, while today a simple arthroscopy can fix it. Nutrition, sports medicine, sports supplements, sports gear & equipment, they all have evolved tremendously. Turning 30 in the 70s, 80s and even the 90s was synonymous with the inevitable decline. Not today with all the evolution. As far as Pete goes; The Spanish Armada and the Argentinian Legion were primed back then and he didn’t adapt very well to clay courts.

Peter was my idol growing up but even I have to concede that federer is better. Yes in the beginning of his career the competition was weak and yes there are only baseline players really now but look at the sheer stats of his dominance, he's been good on every surface, he started his career serving and volleying, his fitness is a million times better than petes was. From 2005 to 2008 federer hardly lost before the final in any tournament!

@nocode61 Tell me, apart from Agassi(which Sampras was always superior than him of course) who else was a strong rival for Pete?? WHO???? RAFTER??? Pete was also superior... Becker??? was old to compete against Pete !! WHOM ELSE????

You're right in everything you said... but this: ''Ferrero better than Muster''... Honestly, under what drug you are?

federer is better though

@nocode61 just one more thing, Roger Federer = G.O.A.T.

Mark Phillipousis and the big Lithuanian serve and volleyer would take offense to your statement! :D Both Pete and Fed were great champions; deciding between the two seems ludicrous.

Pistol Pete

@aleksandrpondios hell no !!! SAFIN, NALBANDIAN, NADAL, DEL POTRO IS the best talented players era . . EASY.

nah...

This is a stupid argument. The reason it looks like Fed has no comp is because he is so good. ARod is better than Ivanisevic. Hewitt better than Chang. JCF better than Muster. Safin is better than Kafelnikov. Nadal could be better than Agassi. Plus Edberg, Lendl and Becker was the previous gen and Safin was the next generation

@pmo1983 brugera is better than ferrero,becker and edberg are much better than djokovic and murray,ivanicevic and krajcek are better than soderling and tsonga and chamg is better than davydenko,did you ever watch tennis in 1990?????????

Please stop with the Federer GOAT. Everyone knows Sampras > Federer.

brugera is better than ferrero,and edberg and becker are much better than djokovic and murray.ivanicevic is better than tsonga and soderling,and chang is better than davydenko

Poor Sampras, who would have imagined he'd be surpassed so fast thanks to demi-god Federer

what about winning in the french? couldnt u asks for that from the GOAT? not being able to win on the clay clearly shows that he didnt have it all