Pete Sampras was bidding to win his third consecutive title at Wimbledon in 1995.
Sampras had beaten Goran Ivanisevic to win Wimbledon in 1994, and was coming into the 1995 tournament as the second seed.
The American was coming into Wimbledon in strong form, having won the Queen’s Club Championships title.
This form continued into Wimbledon, where Sampras comfortably reached the second week at the grass court major before playing a recently converted British player.
Pete Sampras claimed that Greg Rusedski was ‘pretty average’ after beating him at Wimbledon
The year of 1995 was the first of which world number 60 Greg Rusedski was playing Wimbledon as a British player.
Having switched his allegiances from Canada to Great Britain in May of that year, Rusedski was now one of the home favourites at Wimbledon.
Rusedski used that home support to spur him on to his best Grand Slam result at the time by reaching the fourth round.
This is where he would play two-time defending champion Sampras in a first-time meeting between the pair.
Despite the crowd being against him on this occasion, Sampras would beat Rusedski, 6-4 6-3 7-5, to comfortably progress to the quarterfinals.
Although he was out of the tournament, Rusedski appeared to love every second of his time on Centre Court and was full of smiles in front of his new home crowd.
Sampras was less smiles and more business against Rusedski, but he did not hold back about his opponent after the match.
When speaking to press, Sampras claimed that Rusedski did not have much else other than a big serve.
“He’s obviously got a big serve, but if you get it back, he’s pretty average; he has a couple of holes in his game,” said Sampras.
“There’s not a whole lot of strategy when you play someone like Greg. You try to get a serve back and make him play as much as possible and hopefully break him down, and that’s what I did.”
Sampras also commented on his smiley opponent, something he did not seem to be happy to see.
He added, “I was trying to wipe the smile off his face.”
Rusedski was not fazed by Sampras’ comments when responding while fulfilling his own media duties.
“I’m sorry to say he’s never going to wipe that smile off my face, no matter what,” said Rusedski.
“I’m going to have fun out there,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. If Pete’s not going to want to smile or show his emotions, that’s fine by me.”
Two years later, Rusedski proved that he was not just average by reaching the final of the US Open.
This was not the only time that there was a bit of needle between the pair, with Rusedski calling out Sampras at the US Open seven years later.
What happened to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1995 after beating Greg Rusedski?
Rusedski was not the only Brit Sampras beat at Wimbledon that year, having also won his second round match against a young Tim Henman.
Sampras’ fourth round victory over Rusedski would spur him on to a third consecutive Wimbledon title that year.
This included a rematch of the 1994 final against Ivanisevic in the semifinal, where he was pushed to five sets by the Croatian.
Sampras would face Boris Becker in the 1995 Wimbledon final, coming from a set down to win his third consecutive title.
| Wimbledon 1995 | Pete Sampras’ Result |
| First Round | Beat Karsten Braasch, 7-6(4) 6(2)-7 6-4 6-1 |
| Second Round | Beat Tim Henman (WC), 6-2 6-3 7-6(3) |
| Third Round | Beat Jared Palmer, 4-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 |
| Fourth Round | Beat Greg Rusedski, 6-4 6-3 7-5 |
| Quarterfinal | Beat Shuzo Matsuoka, 6(5)-7 6-3 6-4 6-2 |
| Semifinal | Beat Goran Ivanisevic (4), 7-6(7) 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-3 |
| Final | Beat Boris Becker (3), 6(5)-7 6-2 6-4 6-2 |
The following year at Wimbledon would see Sampras’ winning run come to an end, but that certainly would not be his last triumph at SW19.
Sampras would win seven Wimbledon titles in his career, with his final triumph coming in 2000.
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