Jimmy Connors says what it was like to face Pete Sampras and points out a strength he had which nobody talks about

Follow us on Google Discover

Jimmy Connors may not have crossed paths with Pete Sampras very often, but he’s well aware of just how lethal he was.

Sampras looked up to Connors, with the former turning pro in 1988, 16 years after Connors did so in 1972.

Serena Williams idolised Sampras growing up, with both Americans enjoying extremely successful careers on the court.

Sampras is behind only Novak Djokovic (24), Rafael Nadal (22) and Roger Federer (20) for Open Era Grand Slam titles, with 14 won.

He is joined by Serbian ace Djokovic on seven Wimbledon titles, bettered only by the eight of Swiss legend Federer.

Jimmy Connors praises Pete Sampras’s ground strokes

Countless players felt the full power of Sampras on his day, with Connors now explaining what it was like to take on the 14-time Grand Slam champion.

“I played him when I was in my 40s and playing him then, man, his first serve was… I would rather try and return his first serve than his second!” he said on the Advantage Connors podcast.

READ MORE: Jimmy Connors responds when asked to name the best tennis player he ever faced during his career

“His second was just pretty amazing. And you don’t even talk about his ground strokes but he had good ground strokes too. And he was fast. He wasn’t afraid to come forward.”

What was the head-to-head record between Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors?

The ATP careers of Sampras and Connors did overlap very briefly, resulting in two meetings, both in 1992.

And it was the former who emerged victorious on both occasions, although the latter’s 109 titles put him well ahead of Sampras’s 64.

Connors did, of course, instead enjoy a rivalry with another American in John McEnroe, with Sampras’s coming against Andre Agassi.

READ MORE: Jimmy Connors states what was so similar about Roger Federer’s era of tennis when compared to his and Bjorn Borg’s

The 14-time Grand Slam champion could have enjoyed more success if not for Agassi and a handful of other top players, with Sampras losing four Grand Slam finals.

A serve-and-volley master, Sampras sits eighth in the all-time ATP Tour aces list with 8,858 from his 792 matches.