Andre Agassi speaks about former rival Pete Sampras and explains what he meant to his career.
Throughout the prime years of the 54-year-old’s career, he battled with Sampras for the top honours in the game.
They engaged in one of the most famed rivalries in tennis history throughout the 1990s and helped push the sport to new heights during that time.
In the more than two decades since their rivalry came to an end, Andre Agassi reflected on Pete Sampras and how he impacted him both on and off the court.
Andre Agassi says how he feels about Pete Sampras now
Agassi played in an era where Sampras was the dominant player in tennis.
The 53-year-old won 14 Grand Slam titles, which was a record when he retired in 2002, and Sampras also finished as the year-end number one on six consecutive occasions.
Sampras stopped Agassi from winning multiple titles throughout his career and vice versa, and the 1996 Olympic champion gave a very honest assessment of his former rival.
He told RSPA: “If you have the talent and work hard, you can be number one, there is a lot of luck and things involved but you are not guaranteed to have somebody that is doing the same thing, playing the game completely opposite of you, with a personality that is totally opposite of you.
“You are not guaranteed a rivalry. And Pete was that. When I look back, I look at him like a mirror in my life. There are times I looked at him and I envied him.
“There are times when I looked at him and I was resentful of him. There were times I looked at him and it made me realise what I wasn’t.”
He added: “But other times it gave me hope and made me believe but we all pushed each other. I turned pro at 16 and then Chang, Courier, Pete knew they could turn pro.
“Chang wins a slam and then Pete says well I can do that and Courier says I can win a slam and be number one. Then it was like maybe we all can do this.
“I think you need each other. What it meant for the sport is for the sport to define, but I would have won a hell of a lot more without Pete in my life! But I think overall I would have been a lot less.”
What was Andre Agassi’s head-to-head record against Pete Sampras?
Agassi and Sampras played one another 34 times throughout their playing careers.
Their first meeting came back at the Italian Open in 1989, and their final contest came in the 2002 US Open final.
16 of their contests were finals, including six straight from 1995 to 1996. In total Sampras won nine of the finals he played against Agassi.
Agassi’s biggest win against Sampras came in the Australian Open final, as his four-set win marked the first of his four titles won Down Under.
Arguably Sampras’ greatest win against his old rival came in the 1999 Wimbledon final, as his 6–3, 6–4, 7–5 victory is regarded by many as the greatest performances in a championship match at the All-England Club.
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