A Closer Look at the Federer/Nadal and Sampras/Agassi Rivalries

Since Roger is not playing today, and I’m still having thoughts about these two classic rivalries after the Hit for Haiti exhibition, I thought I’d entertain you with a post. Watching the exho I couldn’t help noticing how different the two main rivalries of the last two decades are, and it fascinated me. It was also good to relive some of the Sampras/Agassi rivalry which I always had a big interest in. During the first part of the rivalry I was a Sampras fan. I loved the way he dominated and how easy he made it look, but after a while I got bored of his domination and personality. So I started cheering for the underdog, Agassi, who also had a more interesting personality. It wasn’t always fun to cheer for him, because time after time he lost to Sampras in the big occasions, especially the US Open. And he came so close to winning on several occasions.

I recently read Agassi’s autobiography Open, where he mentions watching Sampras play with his brother, and they said to each other that this guy is never gonna make it, because some coach messed up his game. He just couldn’t keep the ball going for longer that four shots without making an error, even though they could see he was very talented. Then all of a sudden Agassi makes the US Open final in 1990, and he finds Sampras on the other side of the net. He also gets beaten comprehensively, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. This trend would continue as he got beaten three more times at the US Open by Sampras, once in a classic quarter final encounter and twice more in the final. The last three matches were all close four set matches, and each times Agassi was denied by Sampras’ clutch play. The quarter final that they played in 2001 was one of the best ever.

Agassi also says in his book that this was the rivalry decider. At that point they were pretty close in the head-to-head meetings with Sampras leading 17-14, and Sampras was probably having his worst year on tour ever. But because Agassi was on the other side of the net, it brought out the very best in him. I guess Sampras especially enjoyed rubbing Agassi’s nose in the dirt. Sampras won in a match where there were no breaks of serve, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6. In the next year’s US Open final they met again, which was Sampras’ swan song. Again Agassi would get the chance to get a very decisive win in the rivalry. In the fourth set of that match Agassi had break points on Sampras’ serve. It was a long, tense game that would decide the outcome of the match. I remember watching that and thinking that Agassi was going to break and finally put the Sampras ghost to bed, but it never happened.

There was one point that decided the match. It was break point and Sampras missed his first serve. Agassi stepped into the second serve and really ripped it cross court to the feet of Sampras. I thought this is it, no ways Sampras even makes this. There is simply too much pressure. But Sampras is maybe the most clutch player in history, and he made an impossible backhand half volley that just crept over the net and died. And with it Agassi’s hopes of finally breaking the Sampras deadlock died too. For me the Sampras/Agassi rivalry was so fascinating because as is the case with Roger and Rafa, they are two very different individuals with two very different playing styles. Sampras had probably the best serve ever and amazing attacking abilities, while Agassi was probably the best returner of serve ever.

He also had the best ground strokes ever in my opinion. It was the perfect match up, as if they were born to face each other on the tennis battlefield. Personality wise they couldn’t have been more different either. Sampras is the quiet, shy type, while Agassi was the flamboyant showman. They lived their lives in very different ways as well. You always has the feeling that this rivalry was serious on as well as off the court. In this way it is very different from the Federer/Nadal rivalry.Federer and Nadal has transcended that whole tennis rivalry stigma where the rivals can’t be friends off court. It should also be noted that the head-to-head situation of the two rivalries are very different. In the Sampras/Agassi rivalry the player with the better overall career record also won the rivalry, while with Federer and Nadal the player with the better career record is losing the head-to-head meetings thus far.

Does that make it easier for the latter rivalry to be friendly? At first it would seem so, because Roger and Rafa is sharing the honours so to speak, whereas with the Sampras/Agassi rivalry Sampras took all the honours. In the sense you feel sorry for Agassi, but there is no reason for not being friendly rivals in the end. Agassi still did something very important that Sampras could never do, which was to complete the career slam. Therefore there is no real need for him to feel the kind of inferiority that he does towards Sampras. Agassi reached his full potential as a tennis player, and Sampras was just too good in the head-to-head. There is nothing to feel ashamed about for Agassi. But at the Haiti exho it was clear that there was still this unfriendliness between Sampras and Agassi, and that Agassi somehow felt out shined.

Again there is no reason for this, because aside from what he achieved in tennis, Agassi has charisma and a sense of humour that Sampras can’t dream of. In their playing days Agassi had many more fans that Sampras, because he was such a showman and people could identify much better with him as a human being as well. Sampras on the other hand was very boring as a tennis personality, and he always seemed so perfect. People don’t identify as easily with perfectionism as with being flawed. If you look at the Federer/Nadal rivalry, there are just as many reasons to be unfriendly as there was for Sampras and Agassi. Nadal almost broke Federer mentally when he beat him in the Australian Open final, after beating him the previous year in the Wimbledon final. After the Australian Open final Federer could not hold back his tears, and you could see Nadal could not enjoy the moment as much, because he felt bad for his friend.

Federer could have resented Nadal for basically breaking him mentally at that point, while Rafa could have resented Roger for stealing his spotlight at the Oz Open prize giving ceremony. Yet they never took it out on each other. With Sampras and Agassi on the other hand you always had the feeling they wanted to steal each other’s spotlight. Federer and Nadal just concentrate on being the best they can be on the court, and off court they remain friends. Definitely tennis seems to be evolving, which is good to see. I just hope we haven’t seen the best of the Federer/Nadal rivalry. Somehow I suspect we haven’t. I’m hoping for the first Federer/Nadal final at Indian Wells since Madrid last year. What a treat that would be…

Ps. Agassi apologizes http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4997662