PETE SAMPRAS GREATNESS REVISITED by Steve Flink with a Foreword by Chris Evert 376 pages New Chapter Press 2020
ISBN:978-1937559946
REVIEW BY DANIEL PICKER
Steve Flink, veteran tennis journalist has produced a new biography of Pete Sampras, retired American tennis player, who dominated the men’s professional game through the 1990’s. Sampras, a dedicated master of “his craft” amassed 14 major singles championships at three of the four most important tournaments, which today have become known as the Grand Slams.
Flink’s book includes sufficient evidence to support his assertion that Sampras remains the greatest American player in the men’s game in tennis history. Along the way, through Flink’s biography, the journalist provides the backstory on Sampras’s remarkable career, places his readers courtside to many of Sampras’s most remarkable matches, and provides ample evidence to support his thesis that Sampras reigns as the greatest American male player of all time.
Flink’s work seems most riveting to tennis fans when the biographer appears most invested in describing Sampras’s grit as a young competitor. Some of Sampras’s most absorbing triumphs occurred before the tournament’s final. Even before Sampras achieved his first major victory at the 1990 U.S. Open, which he won as a young 19-year-old competitor, dominating Andre Agassi – who later became one of his chief rivals – in the final, Sampras demonstrated his competitive verve. Both before and after his first U.S. Open triumph, Pete Sampras revealed remarkable fight, but this penchant for competition appeared on an inconsistent basis.
Before reaching the Round of 16 in the 1990 U.S. Open, Pete Sampras disposed of Dan Goldie, Peter Lundgren, and Jacob Hlasek, a “Swiss stylist” according to Flink. Early on in his biography of Sampras, Flink spends over three-and-a-half pages describing a Round-of-16 match with the sixth seed, Thomas Muster, who had recently recovered from an injury from a careless, drunk driver. Sampras, fought as the twelfth seed in his home Grand Slam tournament, The U.S. Open. Flink notes on the Muster match: “He played Sampras under the lights and the Austrian’s industriousness and alacrity around the court – coupled with some surprisingly well struck second serve returns – made life exceedingly difficult for the composed yet concerned American.” Flink, a master of parallelism, further notes: “This was a bruising and taxing battle and Sampras was being asked to define his mettle, perspicacity and durability by an opponent who was seeded six places above him.”
Even though Sampras believed he had the game at 19 to overcome Muster’s tenacity, Muster served for the first set at 5-4, and went up 40-15, but Sampras kept fighting. As he continues, Flink brings this match to life: “Sampras responded with situational urgency, releasing a forehand return winner down the line and then a backhand down the line passing shot into the clear.” Back to deuce, Sampras then “collected the next two points with more clutch play.” Flink brings the first set to the inevitable tie-break when “Sampras served an ace down the T in the deuce court to take a 6-3 lead.” Before closing out the set, Flink aptly notes: “But Muster tenaciously stood his ground, coaxing a forehand volley error from Sampras . . .” Later in his career, such an error from Sampras might seem uncharacteristic, yet “an ace down the T” would become characteristic of Sampras in his first United States Open triumph, and later in his career, that sort of serving became vintage Sampras of the highest level. Flink, with his own signature style emphasizes Muster’s “grit and gumption.”
Flink uses “industrious” to describe Muster as a player and later to also describe Jim Courier as a competitor. Also, early on, Flink introduces Michael Chang, a family friend of Sampras, and in a slightly humorous anecdote reveals Sampras’s devotion to “Spartan” simplicity and routine, when a young junior player, Pete Sampras, expresses his preference for Ragu spaghetti sauce to Mrs. Chang. In the same chapter, Michael Chang, who became the first of his generation to win a major Grand Slam title, the 1989 French Open, analyzes Sampras’s shift as a teen from a two-handed backhand to a one-handed backhand. Flink also notes that when Sampras later relocated from California to Florida, and strove to become the mature champion, Courier, who won several French Open titles, acted as a sort of big brother to Sampras in showing him the ropes at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy.
Flink’s willingness to engage all three of Sampras’s main American rivals: Chang, Courier, and Agassi, in extensive interviews, and to let them share their thoughts, adds colorful backstory to this biography, and the sort of thoughtful analysis that will benefit those who love tennis. Courier astutely analyzes the difficulty in surpassing the mature Pete Sampras as due to the superior quality of the Sampras second serve, which appeared nearly equal to the devastating Sampras first serve.
Pete Sampras connection to fellow American Jim Courier, who won four majors, or Grand Slams, draws especial interest from those with ardor for tennis, in that Courier, as he helped the young Sampras become comfortable with tennis training in Florida, Sampras met future coaches, most notably Tom, then Tim Gullikson. These twin brothers, and former professional players, had competed in singles and doubles, and had competed and practiced against each other in singles. Tom, a lefty, had given his twin brother Tim first-hand insight into how to compete against left-handed players; Sampras had much trouble early on with returning the lefty serve, and this was an area in which Tim Gullikson, who was also a righty with a one-handed backhand, provided valuable help.
Flink, who cut his teeth as a young assistant to the inimitable tennis journalist Bud Collins, utilizes “skirmish” on several occasions to describe early-round Sampras matches. Flink also explains Mary Carillo’s remarks during the 1990 U.S. Open and her comparison of young Pete Sampras to the fictional “Hermie” from the film “The Summer of ’42.” Some tennis fans may recall Carillo’s remark during the Final of the U.S, Open, but Flink explains the allusion at length, even before he begins to describe the final match itself.
In describing that Final, Flink presents Sampras’s thoughts to describe the inexplicable events and Sampras’s superior, near flawless display of tennis prowess in a Grand Slam, when one would think, one might feel the extra pressure of a final-round contest, but it was the young Agassi who seemed surprised, and whom Carillo thought “looked scared” as he suffered his second major final defeat in that year’s U.S. Open, after being thoroughly schooled by the “stylish” Andres Gomez, the Ecuadorean master who defeated Agassi in the American’s first French Open Final at Roland Garros earlier; incidentally, which was another final Agassi was expected to win and didn’t.
After spending over five pages describing Sampras’s battle with the third seed, Ivan Lendl, one of the premier professionals of the 1980’s, Flink finally gets to the Final of that year’s U.S. Open where Pete Sampras surpassed his flamboyant, stylistic opposite, Agassi, who loved to flaunt his long locks and garish outfits.
But before reaching Agassi, Sampras had to overcome in the semifinals, another former U.S. Open champion, who also dominated men’s tennis in the 1980’s, the tempestuous and irascible John McEnroe. Sampras had previously subdued past-champion Lendl in five arduous sets, in which Sampras’s superior serving brought the fifth set into his hands 6-2. Then Sampras disposed of his fellow American, a former champion, and all-time great, John McEnroe in four challenging sets, through which McEnroe matched Sampras’s aces, before falling to the younger, rising star. Sampras would later eventually eclipse McEnroe’s seven Grand Slam victories and Lendl’s eight Grand Slam triumphs. These statistics are worth noting, for Flink wishes to assert Sampras’s “numerical superiority” as “the greatest American” of all time and place him among the all-time greats of men’s tennis from every country.
Against Agassi in the Final of the 1990 U.S. Open, Pete Sampras “was blazing from the opening bell on, . . . as if it [were] a first[-]round match in some remote corner of the world.” About midway into the first set, Flink notes “In a flash, Sampras reached 3-1. Agassi kept his teeth in this tussle, holding on tenuously from deuce in the fifth game.” Here, with his clever alliteration, Flink seems to be having a little parallel fun of his own, as Sampras began to reveal his forcefulness and superiority to the seemingly shell-shocked Agassi.
Sampras noted years after that first major victory that Andre “had a sense of panic.” Sampras also later noted that Agassi “looked like a deer in the headlights at times.” Sampras cruised in straight sets to his three-set triumph, gaining power until Agassi “tamely netted a forehand” before falling 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Indeed, Lendl (eight Grand Slams) and McEnroe, (seven Grand Slams), both more experienced champions at that juncture in their careers, put up tougher fights against the young Pete Sampras, than Agassi, who eventually would claim eight Grand Slam titles of his own.
But Flink keeps readers’ interest, explaining the inexplicable lull which followed over the next several years of Pete Sampras’s remarkable career. In 1991, Sampras felt “relieved” after he failed to reach the Final of the next U.S. Open, and he faced harsh, censorious criticism from another American tennis star, and one of the greatest of all time, the never shy Jimmy Connors who holds eight Grand Slam titles. But before that year’s U.S. Open, Sampras competed on the lawns of The All England Club, Wimbledon, which would later become a second home for him, and where he would eventually win more titles than he won in Queens, New York, at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows.
In 1991, on an outside court, at Wimbledon, in an early, second-round match, Sampras found himself battling a former Stanford University standout, Derrick Rostagno. This was the era when numerous former Stanford players made names for themselves in the Grand Slam tournaments, most notably, John McEnroe, who played for Stanford for one year, before winning his three Wimbledon and four U.S. Open titles. Flink notes Sampras “cast aside” Dan Goldie, who had also played for Stanford, in the first round in the U.S. Open of 1990. During that same event, before McEnroe battled Sampras, Mac, in three straight sets thrashed another former Stanford standout, David Wheaton, who had enjoyed a brief collegiate career.
But a year later, Rostagno offered Sampras stiffer competition at Wimbledon. On an outside court, far from the shadows of Centre Court, few fans thought Sampras might become the future champion of Wimbledon; perhaps no one, even Pete Sampras himself, believed he would win seven Wimbledon Championships. Sampras fell that summer afternoon in England on the lawn to Rostagno. Flink fails to offer the score, for this second-round defeat of Sampras, and his book provides no index.
The match that helped to define Sampras as a champion was a defeat in the U.S. Open to Stefan Edberg, the Swede, in 1992, a full two years after Sampras’s initial coming-of-age triumph. In that four-set contest, Sampras later felt he failed to dig deep enough. This defeat inspired Sampras’s serious commitment to his game and helped him become a more consistent champion, who like Connors, McEnroe, and Lendl before him, held the number-one ranking for years.
Flink includes the full story of Sampras’s loss to the Swedish master, Stefan Edberg, who would accumulate six Grand Slam titles, including the U.S. Open in 1992, his last major triumph. Edberg’s gritty defeat of Sampras triggered the young American’s increased resolve and dedication to professional success.
A year later, in 1993 at Wimbledon, the American star, Jim Courier took out the Swedish master, Stefan Edberg, a two-time Wimbledon champion, in the semifinals, by pouncing on Edberg’s effective kick serve. Courier’s triumph set up an all-American final on the Centre-Court lawn between Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. Sampras later reflected that it was in this match he learned the importance of truly digging deep in gaining his first of seven crowns at the storied All England Club, Wimbledon.
Later Flink, with Sampras, also explains the press-conference gaffe concerning Patrick Rafter, (two Grand Slam titles in singles), the ferocious serving battles with the formidable lefty, Goran Ivanisevic, (one Wimbledon title), to make clear the champion that Pete Sampras became, and like Sampras, Flink demonstrates that he too has achieved some mastery of his craft, with a quiet, business-like, modest, no-frills approach. American tennis fans may note, even though Flink does not belabor the point, that after Sampras’s 2002 U.S. Open triumph, and Agassi’s 2003 Australian Open title, and young Andy Roddick’s only major title, the 2003 U.S. Open, no American man has taken a major Grand Slam title since. Indeed, Pete Sampras competed in the last great era for American men in tennis, and proved that he possessed “Greatness.”
