Oh boy, watching baby Federer... and now the great legend he is... oh man! What a privilege being witness of his career. For me, the GOAT, Roger Federer.
@@CC-ff7ft what about djokovic laver kramer gonzalzes or hoad? Maybe number two. don't know if I can put him at number one. He is on the short list of possibilities.
I don't know if we could consider this match as the turning point for both players' careers, Federer lost his qarterfinal like two days later and Sampras won another Grand Slam next year at the US Open. Also Federer never reached the top 10 in the whole 2001 season. So saying that day Federer became the legend he is today is rushed. He might have started his golden age at the 2003 Wimbledon final, when Sampras was already retired and Federer started to win Slams for the first time.
Federer acted like he won the tournament. That's how much it meant to him and how momentous it truly was. Amazing how he was able to maintain his composure the whole match, but that moment was too much for him. Incredible.
At 19 and defeating one of your idols, the king of Wimbledon, with the longest streak of victories in history at stake on your 1st appearance on center court, the rest of the tournament is really not much in comparison. I mean it is the championship. Had Pete got through Fed, he would have won another crown. Fed also did this against Andre in the open, another of his idols. Fed basically retired them both because it was obvious to them that Fed was obstacle they couldn't get past to win majors. Funny, Pete rarely talks about Fed and this loss must have hurt him so deeply. And it's possible that this was his worst loss in his career. Andre is very warm toward Fed, and he always has said Fed is the GOAT. And it's obvious that Fed loves Andre. I remember Fed always imploring Andre to come back to the tour whenever Andre was at his matches.
@@twinwankel Sampras was way past his prime. Missing shots he didn’t used to miss and unable to get to the ball as quickly. Federer didn’t have to beat guys like a prime Samps, Courier, Agassi, Boris Becker when in form with his monster serve, Ivanisivitches monster serve or Safin when he played his best tennis or Michael Chang who returned shots that shouldn’t be able to be returned etc.
Two things I learned from this match. One how much Roger Federer has developed throughout the years with his game to adjust to the current playing style and master it. Two give Pete Sampras a 95 in.² Racket with some rpm blast adjust the game a bit with the coach and he could have won plenty of tournaments throughout 00s
I think Sampras would have ended up as a baseliner. Which was his natural tendency anyway. Particularly on slower courts. Would be interesting to see him have to attempt to win the point 3-5 times with that flat forehand of his over someone like Djokovic
nicedoggy274 yes, very early in his carreer he considerd himself not as an s&v player, rather all court. He stayed back on his 2nd serve (hard court) and did not like Wimbly.
That’s the 1st thing that caught my eye too. It’s so casual, almost lazy here, but still effective. Everything is more synchronised and co-ordinated now.
@ppm120667 i remember 2001 US Open. I wanted Sampras to get Federer in the quarterfinal but at the same time, the whole world wanted another Agassi Sampras battle. At the time I didn't think this would be their only meeting.
Sampras was really on edge and beginning to hear people bringing up retirement a lot and I feel like he didn’t want to drop off and deal with being more inconsistent and not in his top form. He won the US Open a year later and retired with something left in the tank.
@@mineclapplayz I think Federer's best victory is one of those two. Against Djokovic in Roland Garros 2011 or Nadal in Australian Open 2017. Maybe against Djokovic in Wimbledon 2012 and Nadal in Wimbledon 2019 is up there as well.
@@queent3343 Yeah. If we narrow it down to one particular set. But Djokovic was on fire coming into 2011 Roland Garros. I don't think anybody expected Federer to beat Djokovic at Roland Garros after what happened in Australian Open. And clay is supposed to be Federer's weak surface.
@@chamindujanith6337 I think people sleep on Fed on clay, yeah it weakens his serve,overall power and greatly exposes his BH weakness ..... it gives him more time to play tactical points, which I feel is one of of not MOST underrated trait
@@airkuna Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras were all Federer's idols and his stated reason why he plays with a one-handed backhand like them.
What a moment for a tennis fan. Who knew what was around the corner. The Mount Rushmore of tennis was just getting started. I had an opportunity to meet and talk briefly with him a few years later. That guy is first class and my favorite athlete ever.
Sampras is considered the greatest player in the game, never got halfway through the French Open, the only major tournament on clay, but Nadal won ot 16 times so far. Other sufaces Sampras would ace every save. One shot & it was over.
It's mad seeing this again. I can't believe it was almost TWO DECADES ago! I remember it like it was yesterday... which is odd because it was the same summer I left school and I don't remember that at all 😂😂
i heard about this shortly after it happened, i thought 'pete must really be losing it, losing to some no name feder-what?' haha little did i know. but i was always a huge sampras fan and it's taken me till now to finally watch this match. pete actually played quite well - just his backhand let him down. fed's talent is immensely obvious here and it was no shame for pete to lose this match.
Pete starting off the match with 133, 130 and 133 mph serves. OMG👍👍👍♥️♥️♥️ God I miss Sampras and his beautiful and powerful attacking game which he made look like a park walk. Pete Sampras forever.♥️
@@ucfkid67 Yeah. So what? Actually, Novak was up break before Roger broke him twice to have those match points. There things are normal in tennis. It is not like allowing a goal in soccer.
And now they're both retired -- in some ways that's not remarkable, in other ways it most certainly is. How great, though, to live in a time when we can watch the classic matches again on demand!
Please upload... Roddick vs Murray Wimbledon 2009 Semi Final. It was one of the underrated matches of Wimbledon. Roddick displayed amazing courage and nerves when he was clearly not favorite going into the match.
I'm a big Federer fan but my heart broke for Andy Roddick after that crushing defeat in the 2009 Wimbledon final. He played the best tennis of his career during that two weeks and he deserved to win the title. Sadly it seems that loss was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. He was never the same after that and retired only a few years later.
I remember watching this during work experience as a 15 year old and thinking 'this nobody is special'...my abiding memory is thinking I had never seen someone hit the ball with so much topspin...the ball was going over the net in a way I had never seen before...such steep entrance and exit trajectiories...the "current" greatest playing the future greatest...so cool.
I came here for Federer. But now I miss Sampras's play and game style. Federer resembled him in these days but has very much distinguished himself since then.
It's impossible to compare players from different eras. Each of the great players was great playing on the surfaces, using the equipment, and playing against the opponents that existed when they competed. Sampras excelled playing on the faster tennis surfaces that existed in the 90's. Rod Laver was top notch playing with wood rackets. And so on..
I can't imagine how incredible this had to have been for Roger. Pete Sampras was one of his idols growing up. It must felt like a surreal dream that he not only got to play his idol but ended up beating him.
Like Carlos Alcaraz beating Rafa Nadal at 2022 Madrid QF. Or Stefanos Tsitsipas beating Roger Federer at 2019 AO 4R. Or Nick Kyrgios beating Nole Ðoković at 2017 Acapulco 500 QF.
The new star was born that day, the upcoming Legend succeeded the legend. Both attacking fast playing style in a match will never be forgotten, and simply it won't exist anymore, I think.. Incredible!!
It's not so much missing serve & volley for me, as the variety. Some people found serve & volley boring at the time, much how people find repetitive baseline battles boring now, but there seemed more variety then.
Robinson Crusoe I think rn the game lacks variety & excitement. Fed’s revival & the Djok vs Wawrinka rivalry from 2013-16 kept things afloat. But matches like US Open 12 final between Djok n Murray where LONG baselines rallies were highly frequent bores the S*** out of me.
Este es uno de los mejores juegos de la catedral cuando sampras era el mejor, comenzo la leyenda de su majestad roger federer...la primera y única vez que jugaron en juegos oficiales en el tenis...dos super leyendas del tenis...
Love these great competitors. Would’ve been cool to see Pete play with a better racket in this era. Also would’ve been cool to see the big three play on the faster courts of the 90s.
Reminds me of Sampras at 19 defeating Lendl in the US Open of 1990. Has the same passing-the-torch feel to it. Remarkable how similar are the styles of Sampras and Federer, the latter player being an updated, more creative version of the former.
The battle of two Wimbledon legends, shame now at 39, Federer didn’t bring back the ponytail look, just two years later he would win the first of eight Wimbledon titles, back then Centre Court had no roof
The expression on Sampras’s face throughout the 5th set doesn’t suggest he was off form and fighting to find it (with all the frustration that comes with that). He looks more like someone who is being taken out of his comfort zone and is lost in bewilderment. Especially after match point.
Probably wasn't used to seeing a dozen return of service winners, or having to volley off his feet. Takes great concentration and knee bend to hit those and that's tough to do for 4 hrs.
Federer at his best would be beat Sampras at his best but a 19 year old Federer wouldn't have beaten Sampras if Sampras was at his best. Sampras didn't look as good in 2001 as he did the years before. In the next round Federer lost to Tim Henman and Tim Henman always lost to Sampras at Wimbledon.
I felt like something personal was bothering him from the stands . I felt that Andre Agassi was bothered in the same way later in his career . I think that sometimes a trainer can keep the player busy while he stays busy with the player's wife. I see that kind of look from Sampras.
Believe it or not, this was the new rye grass to encourage more rallies since it had a higher bounce, but it rained a lot prior to the tournament and the bounce was still low and slick. However it completely changed in 2002-2003 when it played more like a hardcourt. They slowed the balls later too not sure which year but players had much more powerful racquets and poly strings by then, so basically serve volley was replaced by serve + groundstroke. The return game had improved in the mens game. Federer , Hewitt and safin were great examples of that.
There aren't too many baseline rallies but the ones that were played are pure quality. Superb power and placement from both players. Back in the days of hard flat hitting before the polyester strings changed everything. Full commitment on every shot.
How did the new racket strings change things? I am a big tennis fan, but never played, so don’t understand the correlation between technology and play styles
@@usafo6546 agree. i feel because the surfaces are slower now and return of serve so good, players rarely serve and volley like sampras and co did back in the day.
One year later, Federer lost in the first round of the French Open AND Wimbledon, and in 2003, before he won Wimbledon, he again lost in the first round of the French Open, and people spoke about him having a mental block in Grand Slams. The rest is history.
I remember when he crushed Mac at the US open in 90, I didn't think it was possible for him to lose since he was so dominant in his time, but it was. At least he played a way better match than Mac did.
If we include the women then it has to be the 2006 Wimbledon final. Mauresmo serve volleyed throughout the match then by the third set to try to get Mauresmo off the net, Henin started doing it herself so both players serve volleyed throughout the third set.
@@steinanderson9849 I include them. Well it was a great match and even the women don't play like that now. Henin and Mauresmo played an ATP way on the WTA tour. That's disappeared too.
It's amazing what the change in the grass and court speed did to the style of play in Wimbledon. Compare the 2006 final (or even the 2003 SF) to this match and it's like they're playing a different sport. Obviously, much more watchable now, but it is remarkable how differently grass tennis was played in 2001.
I remember this match well, and in hindsight it was a strong indication of the changing of the order: from the generation of Agassi and Sampras and others, to Federer and Nadal and their contemporaries. It was a great match
They give Fed an advantage for being 19 here, compared to Pete's "aged" 29 years old; but since then we've seen Nadal, Djokovic, and Fed in their mid 30's, dominate the youngsters in their early 20's. If the trend they established holds, then the early to mid 30's could be either part of the prime performance years, or maybe even THE prime performance years (instead of automatic retirement time like it was back then.). I also wonder if Fed wouldn't be winning more if his training regimen was that of someone who was not so innately gifted. In other words, Fed in his prime years was so intrinsically talented that he probably didn't have to train half as hard as those less gifted, but that he might be paying for this now because at close to 40 his age definitely does matter. Like, what if he started lifting weights seriously, and took working out much more seriously; would he be more successful? Djokovic and Nadal have always been more muscular and toned than Fed, and I'm thinking that it's because they have weight lifting incorporated into their workout routines. But Fed, when he was younger, was still part of an older era in tennis that didn't take training as seriously as they do now. When Djokovic takes his shirt off, he is ripped; Fed's got a little gut and always has. He's always depended on his tremendous talent.
@@igorlucena11 Novak was one of my favorite players. Feel sorry for him now. He just wanted to be loved. Now he is a laughing stock and has brought the game into disrepute. Better than his father though - now that guy is an absolute TOOL! 🤦♂️🤮
Pity Federer did not have the mental discipline to go all the way after this momentous victory. Lost to Henman in the next round and Ivanesevic eventually got his hands on the trophy. Historically very significant match for all sorts of reasons. Good commentary from Peter Fleming and the late David Mercer.
Great that Federer got a chance to play Sampras at Wimbledon before Sampras retired - it gave it that real changing of the guard feel. Federer not only beat Sampras himself on Centre Court, but when on to beat his records there too. Thanks for uploading this great match!
This match ok, Federer young star took it away(also the 8th championship) from him but in 02 it was devastating...However, still Pete is a hero on grass and a masterful player to watch.
Okay, we finally have the first Sampras match premiered on Wimbledon channel since they started showing archives months ago. And, they select a match that is easily and widely available on the internet and one he lost anyway lol. More seriously, come on! Let's have some matches which are not available on the internet at all. Isn't that the point of these archives? As I mentioned before, it would be lovely to see Pete's match v Andre Agassi from 1993 quarterfinal and definitely the 1999 semifinal v Henman because there is no footage of that anywhere. The 1992 quarterfinal V Stich, or the 1995 final v Becker, there are plenty to choose from.
@@jaya733 Well the good news is finally they have one of the matches I have metioned lined up for today! So, finally, they had this up their sleeve :-) Let's hope for a few more over the next week or so, particuarly the 1999 semifinal
I was At Wimbledon that Day and Watched this Match on the Big Screen on Henman Hill,Awesome Tennis Match ,The day Federer Toppled the King Pete Sampras off his Throne at SW19.