Insights: Sports—Tale of the Tennis Titans

Agassi and Sampras prepare for Grand Slam showdowns

Cliff Drysdale
From the Print Edition:
Kevin Bacon, May/Jun 00

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Sampras has only once reached the semis in Paris. It's fascinating to watch an attacker like Pete try to think his way through the slow clay. There's no doubt in my mind that Sampras can win in Paris. I believe he should play more European clay events than he has in the past and learn to feel comfortable attacking on his terms rather than get seduced into hanging back at the baseline.

But the truth is that Agassi has a better chance at Wimbledon than Sampras does at the French. Agassi has won Wimbledon once and reached the final last year. If London's weather is hot, the soft grass will play more like a hard court--Agassi's favorite surface.

That said, Sampras is a much greater favorite to win Wimbledon than Agassi is to win in Paris. Sampras is the king of Wimbledon, having won six of the last seven (46 matches won, 1 lost). If his game suffers a 25 percent penalty at the French, at Wimbledon he gains a 25 percent reward. Besides his tremendous serve, Sampras's high-quality ground game constantly challenges opposing servers. Once he breaks serve, you might as well start another set.

While other attackers like Mark Philippoussis, Greg Rusedski, Richard Krajicek, Todd Martin, Tim Henman, Patrick Rafter or Goran Ivanisevic could make an impact at Wimbledon, their injuries and mental shortcomings keep me from betting on any of them to topple Sampras.

So here's how tennis 2000 shakes out: Agassi and Sampras will fight for the top spot all year long like two dogs wrestling for a bone. No matter where these two meet, no matter what the surface, bullets will fly and the tennis will be brilliant. But not until September's U.S. Open will we truly reach high noon.

Cliff Drysdale is a tennis commentator for ESPN and a former pro. Joel Drucker, a Cigar Aficionado contributor, collaborated on this article.

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