The Man:Age - 36
Retired - 5 years ago (and hasn't played any competitive tennis since)
Grand Slam Titles - 14
Wimbledon Titles - 7
Last Title Won - US Open, 2002
Name - Pete Sampras
His Opponent:
Age - 26
Retired - 2 years from now, probably :P
Grand Slam Titles - 12
Current Rank - 1
Last Title Won - Masters Series (less than a week ago)
Name - Roger Federer
Now, when these two men take on each other in a tennis court, you can expect even hardcore Sampras fans to think that Federer would beat Sampras 999 out of 1000 times. If it's a 3-match series, they can be excused for thinking that the odds of Sampras winning 1 set is about 1 in a hundred. Now, if you had told them that Sampras actually won 2 out of 6 sets, won one out of 3 matches, 3 out of the 6 sets were tie-breakers of which if Sampras had won all three, he would have also won the 3 match series 2-1, they'll tell you they knew he was capable of doing it :P
I believed that Sampras would win the third match after he lost the second one in 2 heart-breaking tie-breakers, and he did. Some people are so convinced about the invincibility of Federer that this will not change their opinion one bit....but for people like me who believe that Sampras is way better than Federer, well, it doesn't change our opinion one bit either.
Bow to the King, the only KING! B-)
