Five and a half years in retirement does not seem to have stopped fourteen-time Grand Slam winner Sampras from picking up a racket again. Pete Sampras returns to form in a match scheduled against current champ Roger Federer on Monday (March 10) at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is the fourth time the two tennis pros will meet for an exhibition, a chance for Sampras to "get back into the swing of things," and for Federer to get some practice in between his Grand Slam and Tennis Masters Cup matches. Federer, who has competed in only two tournaments this season had been recovering from mononucleosis (glandular fever). The world number one was also beaten in the first round in Dubai last week by Briton Andy Murray, his first match since losing to Serb Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals. "Actually I'm feeling better again and know its all this speculation. I think there's no need to lie about it either. Being sick is a normal thing sometimes. It's like being injured," Federer said in a news conference ahead of the night's matchup. He also said that he was surprised at how well Sampras was still playing, when he went to visit him at his L.A. home. "I was so impressed how well Pete was still playing and this is it when really actually the idea came along and I thought hey, actually we should really do something, because this is a unique match. Maybe people are still waiting to see, and even though maybe it isn't on tour because, who knows, he might be on the other side of the draw. Who knows, because we've never played each other," he said. Roger Federer currently holds twelve Grand Slam title wins, only second to Sampras. The tennis legend even acknowledged that someday in the near future he believes that Federer will knock him from the top title of most Grand Slam wins, one he has held since 2002. "In a lot of ways Roger has sort of created this monster of being unbeatable. If you lose a match here, lose a match there people have the assumptions that he's lost his edge, he's lost his dominance. I don't look at it like that at all. I just think he'll be just fine. He'll play Indian Wells, he'll play Miami, but, in due fun at those events. But when it comes down to the big big events I think that this is the guy that you're gonna see standing with the trophy," said Sampras. Sampras, who began playing tennis professionally at sixteen, became the youngest U.S. Open male singles champion when he defeated then-newcomer Andre Agassi in 1990. Over his fifteen-year career Sampras racked up fourteen Grand Slam titles, five of them U.S. Open titles, before retiring in 2003. Sampras admitted to reporters at the news conference that age had gotten the better of him: "Since I don't play these very often and I'm not quite as sharp my start is going to be kind of huge for me. If I can hold-serve a couple of times and find my feet and find my bearings I can just kind of work my way into the match I should be ok, but it's a big question mark. I just, it's just sort of a different sort of atmosphere and, I just ask Roger I just want to hold-serve twice early on. And then I'll be ok. But if I get off to a bad start it could be a tough night for me. But we'll see," he said.
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Added: Apr 15, 2008 |
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