I am glad you like him, herc. He's really one of the greatest and most gracious players in history of tennis. It was an incredible combination of honest and low key personality, perfect game and lethal mental strength.
People those who never followed him or followed him selectively don't really know how difficult a job it was to break through among living legends and then establish his own authority over all others within 5 years of turning pro. And how difficult it was to stay No. 1 for six straight years from 1993 to 1998 while beating most players week in week out.
In fact, he would have stayed No. in 1999 as well but he had to withdrew from AO and had to withdraw from USO too in the same year due to his sudden back injury. He was on a winning streak (24) before withdrawing from USO and was almost in tears because he really didn't want to miss US Open too.
And despite schooling Agassi in the 1999 Wimbledon final in straight sets, Sampras still went on to lose his No. 1 ranking to Agassi the next day. Had the back injury not happened at that crucial time just 2 two weeks before USO (I recall it happening during Cincinnati Masters), Sampras would have most like won the USO and would have ended the No. 1 ranking for the 7 straight years since he also won the year-end beating Agassi and after coming back from injury that kept him away from tennis a few month that year.
And after 1999, after that back injury, Sampras was never the same player again. In fact, he played with a lot of pain both at Wimbledon and USO after that but he would never openly talk about it so no one really knew. His pain so much at times that not only he was unable to practice before a big mach but he would also think about withdrawing during a Slam (especially at Wimbledon) at times but he kept on going despite all that.
He was as great a player as it can be who came through so many adversities and obstacles in his life and remained quite about most things. His parents and family lived from pay check to pay check and yet this little young man had a very big dream and he pursued it like nothing else.
I will need to read more about him. he was a magnificent athlete.
did you know that lendl once hired pistol pete to help him with his return of serve.
he paid pete to come to his house and blast serves all day so he (lendl) could work on his return.
lendl knew that to truly dominate the sport he had to improve his return of serve.
I will need to read more about him. he was a magnificent athlete.
did you know that lendl once hired pistol pete to help him with his return of serve.
he paid pete to come to his house and blast serves all day so he (lendl) could work on his return.
lendl knew that to truly dominate the sport he had to improve his return of serve.
Don't know about that herc darling but I do know Sampras stayed at Lendl' place about 3 months to work on discipline, work ethic, mental toughness etc. I am not sure if Pete was known for his return game though it was highly deceptive. It's not like most of matches were settled on TBs. Quite the contrary in fact. He just wouldn't go for more than 1 break since he could easily hold his own serve. However, he found Ivanisevic and krajicek serves hard to break - especially those of Ivanisevic so those would settle in TBs and especially at Wimbledon since the courts were really fast.
We've got a wise guy on our side, herc darling and finally! However he's only 13 years old but hey. lol
Not sure if s/he will read this but warm welcome!
102 members and counting.
Wonder if Anikh was able to see Stan's match and perhaps Rafa's too?
We've got a wise guy on our side, herc darling and finally! However he's only 13 years old but hey. lol
Not sure if s/he will read this but warm welcome!
102 members and counting.
I have no idea how old these people are emma.
but it is good news for us. some day we will have 300 or more and a few of them will post somewhat actively.
that will be good enough for us.
these things simply take time. people find it very hard to break away from twitter and facebook.
I am able to enjoy all 3 and more. hell I must be a member of at least 10 forums and I am not even around most days.
so you can see it takes very little time to sort of stay in touch. it takes me merely a fraction of a second to make a post and say hello to somebody.
what happened to our friend general Javier the fearless? I guess he has no time at all.
must be busy making the big bucks.
I was wondering the same thing.
perhaps anikh will surprise us with a pics from his adventures in Paris.
GGl was solid today. he has a smooth game.
Hi everyone. Just back after being at Roland Garros. Got wi fi in hotel. No Andy today as Clay said and it rained quite a bit but i did get to sample some of the atmosphere including the Stan defeat and Nole win. Wished Heather Watson good luck as she walked right in front of me. My souvenir was the French Open tennis balls.
evening anikh. good to see you around.
its Andy time tomorrow.
rough day for Stan today. GGL was sharp and focused.
anybody knows about Stan's next tournament? will he play in Halle, Germany along with Roger and Rafa?
Thanks Clay yes Andy plays just before i make my back to London. I dont want to speak too soon about what this means but factually Andy now the higher ranked player in every scheduled match until semi finals. Any Golubev is tough player and first needs to be taken care of. Will try to send a few pics when home.
morning anikh, emma, and company.
rough day for dimitrov today in paris. he was removed from the facilities by dr ivo.
almagro is out too. so some big names have fallen.
andy murray snags the 2nd set.
