Pete Sampras Story

Petros "Pete" Sampras was born on August 12, 1971 in Washington DC (USA).

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Petros is his given name but he ended up being known as Pete.
Pete Sampras despite being born in the USA he is of Greek descent due to his grandparents.

Sampras is his parents' 3rd child.

Pete Sampras, only 3 years old, had his first contact with tennis after finding a box inside a box, a tennis ball and a racket. Sampras immediately started playing with them by hitting balls with the wall.

At the age of 7, in 1978, his family moved from Washington to Palos Verdes located in California.

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At the age of 11, Sampras met one of his idols, Rod Layer, and it was this conversation that made him continue to have the sleep of being a great tennis player.
At this point Sampras and his parents decided to put him in the Jack Kramer Club for him to take tennis lessons.

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Pete sampras immediately started to attract the interest of several coaches who wanted him to become a professional tennis player.

At 16, Pete Sampras turned professional.

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In 1988, Sampras debuted as a professional starting at 893rd place in the ranking.

In this 1st season, Pete Sampras didn’t win any title but won some matches that made him go up in the ranking.
Some of his victories were considered great achievements as he won games against TOP 40 players.

At the end of this year Sampras finished in the TOP 100 (97th place)

In 1989, Sampras continued to progress and even managed to win a Grand Slam at Roland Garros.

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Even though he is still a novice in the 2nd participation in the Grand Slam of the USA, he reached the 4th stage and defeated the champion in the same title.
He ended the season in 89th place in the ranking.

In 1990, it was the one where Sampras stood out immensely.
This year he managed to win Andreas Agassi.
He managed to win the US OPEN title for the first time, becoming the youngest player in history to win this title (19 years and 20 days).

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Sampras also won the tournament of champions, which can be compared to the current ATP Finals.
So Sampras finished the season in 5th place in the ranking.

In 1991, Sampras continued to have excellent results, having even won his first Masters 1000.
However he was not able to be very consistent when it comes to winning titles.

In 1992, Sampras did not get any Grand Slam title and made him think that he lacked some prominence to be able to be ranked 1st in the ranking, as ester was his main objective.

In 1993, Sampras managed to achieve his great goal of reaching the 1st place in the ranking. However, for tennis fans he still did not convey confidence as he achieved this feat without winning major titles.

Sampras willing to prove his worth on the 1st opportunity he had won the title of Winbledom Grand Slam champion.

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He in addition to the Wimbledon title also won his 2nd US Open title.

In 1994, Sampras got his first title at the Australia Open which is the 1st Grand Slam of the season.

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He won the Wimbledon Grand Slam again.
This made him remain number one in the ranking.

In 1995, a great rivalry with Andre Agassi intensified.
In these years the two met in two finals and Sampras won both. Sampras achieved the feat of being Winbledom's tri-champion.

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In 1996, Sampras continued with his good moment but in relation to the Grand Slams he only managed to win the US Open.

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Despite not having won many titles, Sampras remained in 1st place in the ranking.

In 1997, he won 2 Grand Slams (Australia Open and Winbledon). This would make Sampras finish the year in the 1st place in the ranking, this being the 5th consecutive year in this place.

In 1998, Sampras managed to finish again in 1st place in the ranking, this being a historic milestone, as he was the 1st tennis player to be able to be 6 consecutive years in the 1st place of the ranking.
This year he won again and Winbledon.

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In 1999, it was a difficult year for Sampras not because of his tennis court displays but because of a health problem on his back.
This led to him losing the 1st position in the ranking due to having to miss several tournaments due to his back problem.
Sampras ended the year in 3rd place in the ranking.

In 2000, Sampras still had his back problem but he still managed to win the Winbledon Grand Slam (this would be the last time of this feat).

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This title became the 13th title in Sampras' career.
This year Sampras for a brief moment managed to return to the 1st place in the ranking reaching the 286 week mark leading the ranking.

In 2001, Sampras finished in 10th place in the ranking.
This year he won no title and only reached a Grand Slam final that was at the US Open.

In 2002, Sampras, due to his back problem being worse, was unable to have good performances in any of the tournaments and ended up losing games against tennis players outside the TOP 50.
Sampras ended up being absent for a period of time to try to improve his fitness with the objective of winning the US Open.
He even managed to win this Us Open title, making a total of 14 Grand Slam titles. This was the last Grand Slam title won by Sampras.

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After this Grand Slam Sampras did not compete again and in September 2013 he announced the end of his career.

In total he won 64 titles including 14 Grand Slams, 9 Masters Series and 5 Masters Cup.