Sampras knocks off Federer

Agassi, McEnroe, Connors and Roddick all seem to be OK despite that...

Sampras is not a bad guy. He's a class act. His only crime is being boring...

 

How sad was it that Sampras was the most dominant player of his era -- doing just as much as Federer -- and he was blasted for being boring and interest in tennis went down. I'm not sure what Federer does that is that much more exciting than Sampras.

 

As a bit of an aside, did anyone else watch that McEnroe-Becker Davis Cup match that went 6 1/2 hours? I watched the first 3 hours, went to play basketball for 2 hours, and was stunned when I came back home and it was still going.

And sure, Petey was boring, but I always overlooked that because he was just so devastating.

 

Completely agree he's not a bad guy. He was a helluva player, played with a ton of class and a great respect for the history of the sport and was a very tough competitor, even if he didn't show it on the outside.

But all the guys you mentioned had lives outside of their sports. McEnroe and Connors spent some time in college and got married at pretty young ages — I think Connors married a former Penthouse Pet — and Agassi and Roddick went Hollywood for a while.

Would all four have maybe won a few more Slams if they'd had the total focus that Pete had? Probably, almost certainly in Agassi's case.

 

Always good to assume the "accepted wisdom" as the truth. I guess ESPN said do.

Good journalism instincts. ;-)

That's his rap, and that will always be his rap.

If you had an opportunity to watch courtside as the guy played in his prime, you would think differently. You wouldn't find him boring in the least.

One big problem with tennis writers (the "embedded", I like to call them, like many other specialists in "smaller" sports) is that the questions are never any good at pressers. The writers who know something about the sport don't want to waste a good question that will fill the notebooks of everyone in attendance.

The local writers who cover from week to week don't really know what to ask.

If you're the type willing to make chicken soup out of chicken s..t, you can come across as "not boring."

If you just don't care, or just want to go have a rubdown, you return in kind.

It's funny how people perceived Agassi and Sampras back in the day.
Agassi was the wild guy, Sampras the "quiet, classy guy" even though every second word that came out of his mouth (off camera) started with an "f" and ended with a "k".

Look who turned out to be the philosopher king, the philanthropist and, if he felt like it, far and away the best analyst in the business (a glimpse during the U.S. Open this year was enough to make one salivate).

It's all about what people want you to see, or about apathy. No one can make any kind of judgment about the kind of person a high-profile athlete is, because the sample size we get to see is too small.

Too bad people draw conclusions anyway. ;-)

 

Well said, as always.

Exhibit 1B: Greg Maddux. Most profane mouth in baseball.

 

That's Mr. Hall-of-Fame Potty Mouth to you.

I'll take his brother Mike every time (except on the mound).

 

Songbird: I remember watching most of that epic match... it made me exhausted just watching it.

I was a Connors fan, but always respected McEnroe a ton for being so loyal to Davis Cup.