Pistol Pete says Rocket Rod is best ever.

[Donny]

Better than Sampras?
By John Casey, exclusive to FOXPORTS.com.au
September 5, 2003

SEEMINGLY washed away by the river of tears at the emotional farewell for Pete Sampras at this year’s US Open was the answer that tennis fans have been seeking for decades.

No, Sampras was not the greatest player of all time. We now know this because Pete said so himself.

Despite being statistically the greatest ever, with 14 Grand Slam singles wins - twice as many as the likes of Newcombe, McEnroe and Agassi - Sampras admitted he did not deserve the all-time number one ranking.

"I will never sit here and say I’m the greatest ever. I just won’t," Sampras told the world tennis media at Flushing Meadows.

With these words, Sampras has confirmed what many Australians have known for some time- that a scrawny Queenslander by the name of Rod Laver is the best the world has seen.

Even in the unlikely event that someone in the future should claim all four grand slam titles in a single year, the evolution of the game would not allow them to duplicate the effort seven years later as Laver did.

The physical and technological (racquet) advancements in the game just won’t allow it to happen. Laver’s achievements simply cannot be matched, let alone bettered. The New York Times opined that Sampras would at least go down as the best grass court player of all time because of his seven Wimbledon triumphs, and having personally witnessed the American’s efforts at SW19, I can understand where they are coming from.

En route to the 1997 Wimbledon title Sampras won 96 consecutive games on serve, and was broken only twice in the two weeks. If the Dutch invented ‘total football’ this was the tennis equivalent.

But when Laver completed his Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969, three of the four majors were played on grass, and who knows how many more titles the Rockhampton Rocket would have amassed had he not missed six years in the prime of his career to chase the money rather than the glory, back when those two weren’t considered appropriate bedfellows for the demure sport of tennis.

In no way does this devalue what Pete Sampras has achieved, because clearly he is the best player in the past 30 years. John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi were just three players who were more than happy to endorse this claim.

But just as he did with a racquet in his hand, Sampras has now shown with his words in retirement, that he is one of the sport’s living legends. The best right-hander of all time, and not far behind Rod Laver as the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen.