The moment in tennis history signalled a changing of the guard. But before the Swiss began his Grand Slam streak, sharpshooter 'Pistol Pete' had been the king of Wimbledon with his unbreakable serve commanding the hallowed turf of the All England Club since He took to playing tennis at the age of three.
Dr Peter Fischer was the man who is credited for drawing up the blueprint for Sampras' career, helping him develop his winning mentality. Having already become the US Open's youngest-ever male singles champion at the age of 19 years and 28 days by defeating Andre Agassi in , Sampras eyed Wimbledon as his next big major, but he was made to wait three years before the title came. When it did, he defeated Jim Courier in an Independence Day showdown between the top two American men in the world.
Thus followed an eight-year spell of dominance that not even Federer was able to replicate in his prime. From victory in the first round in to his last title win in , he lost only one match. It was a quarter-final defeat in to eventual winner Richard Krajicek. Sampras defended his title in when he completed a straight-sets victory against the big-serving Goran Ivanisevic and a year later, he became the first man since Bjorn Borg to complete a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles when he came from a set down to beat Boris Becker.
Sampras' longtime coach and close friend Tim Gullikson was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier in and the American dedicated the victory to him after the match. Becker, the crowd's sentimental favourite, was full of praise for Sampras when he said: "If there is a role model in tennis, it's Pete Sampras. He's behaving perfectly on court. He's a real nice fellow off the court and he's playing great tennis altogether. Agassi did make a remarkable rise all the way back to No.
But that is more stuff of legend than referring to a great player who was consistently at the top for long periods of time. It usually comes down to one thing for Pete Sampras: his failure to win the French Open. Sampras has said he wished he tried a more modern frame for the slow red clay.
And then it became a mental issue as he seemed to accept his fate and talked himself out of giving more effort at Roland Garros.
Agassi is an interesting player because he virtually played the same way regardless of the surface. That was the case in an era s and early s when mainly the women played their own game regardless of surface.
The other interesting thing is that Agassi played on clay in a quite typical hardcourt manner—virtually on the baseline, hitting through the ball trying to control the middle of the court and not much sliding at all. Agassi, along with Monica Seles, revolutionised the return of serve.
Agassi was not the most athletic player but had extremely quick footwork and reflexes, which he relied on to take the ball very early on return of serve and from the baseline. Agassi would occasionally take to the net off good approach shots and was a competent volleyer, but also possessed a great backhand smash. Sampras was a more conventional all-court player of his era who served and volleyed on grass virtually every point, but rallied on his own serve much more on hardcourts and clay.
On hardcourts, Sampras liked to stay back on his second serve to rally and not offer his opponent a target. On clay and rebound ace which were slower, Sampras was happy to stay back on first serve as much as coming in to net. Sampras was the more athletic player who initially relied on his natural talent to coast through matches. As he became more experienced, he combined his natural ability with a strong work ethic and will to win which made for a virtually unbeaten combination.
They played each other 34 times, with 20 wins for Sampras and 14 wins for Agassi. They played in nine Grand slam meetings with a record to Sampras, and five Grand Slam finals with a record to Sampras including three wins at the US Open in , and His second and third Wimbledon titles were more impressive from a tennis standpoint.
Becker knocked off No. Becker's flair was nearly as important as his results in earning him a spot on this list. Considering the way John McEnroe dominated the Wimbledon tournament at the age of 25, it's hard to believe he never won the event again.
In fact, McEnroe never won any Grand Slam tournament after the age of 25 even though he had one of the most dominating seasons in men's tennis history in McEnroe's epic five-set loss to Bjorn Borg in the final simply set the stage for his victory over Borg in the final at the age of After losing to Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final, McEnroe responded with magnificent performances the next two years.
He lost only one set in his run through the Wimbledon, beating overmatched Chris Lewis in the final , , The next year he again lost only one set on his way to the title, thrashing Connors , , in the final in perhaps the most impressive exhibition of grass-court tennis in history. McEnroe would win the U. Open later that year, giving him two titles and a runner-up finish in the three majors he played during that season.
But he would never win another Grand Slam singles title, getting to the final of only one more, the U. Williams made a habit of playing her best tennis at the All England Club. She was not the top seed in any of her five Wimbledon title runs and was among the top four seeds in only one. Williams knocked off the Nos. However, Williams' championship mettle was best displayed while winning her third and fourth Wimbledon crowns. She had lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open and the third round of the French Open when she entered the Wimbledon event ranked No.
Williams proceeded to roll through Wimbledon, beating No. In , after two-injury plagued seasons, Williams came into Wimbledon ranked 31st and seeded No. She struggled in the tournament's first week against little-known opponents. But she dominated in the second week, winning her final four matches in straight sets—three of which were against players ranked in the top six.
Williams became the lowest seeded player to win a Wimbledon title. Five of Williams' seven Grand Slam titles were achieved at Wimbledon. Although she was not as proficient as sister Serena on all surfaces, Venus Williams was and is capable of beating anyone on the grass at Wimbledon.
There is no telling how many Wimbledons Rod Laver would have won if pros had been allowed to play the tournament in the mids. Laver won four consecutive Wimbledons in which he participated. He won the event during his final two years as an amateur then captured the first two Wimbledons in the Open Era, in and His best years, between and , were spent dominating the pro circuit, a period that covered five Wimbledons he was excluded from playing.
His title run was historically important because it was the first Open Wimbledon, as Laver knocked off Arthur Ashe and Tony Roche in the final two matches without the loss of a set. His and Wimbledon crowns were particularly significant because they were part of his Grand Slam years. He is still the only person to sweep all four major tournaments in the same calendar year twice. By virtually any measure, Laver ranks as one of tennis' all-time greats. He is No. Bjorn Borg won five straight Wimbledon titles, a men's record for consecutive crowns at the All England Club, later matched by Roger Federer.
The record does not include consecutive titles won before , when the defending champion had to win only one match to claim the title.
Borg was a mediocre grass-court player when he first played Wimbledon but developed his game to excel on the fast surface. At a time when serve-and-volley players ruled on grass, Borg proved you could win at Wimbledon with outstanding groundstrokes and a serviceable serve and volley.
He had already won two French Opens by the time he won his first Wimbledon title in , a month past his 20th birthday. Interestingly, that first Wimbledon crown came just a few weeks after his most disappointing French Open performance, when he lost in the quarterfinals. Borg won his first Wimbledon title in without the loss of a set, and no man has done that since.
The next year he had to win three five-set matches to take the title, including a marathon victory over Jimmy Connors in the final. However, his most memorable Wimbledon title was his last one, in His riveting , , , , victory over John McEnroe was remarkable not only for the level of play, but for Borg's ability to rebound from the epic tiebreaker loss in the fourth set to capture the deciding set.
However, that is less of a factor in women's tennis because there was no pro circuit for women before
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