The Devastating U.S. Open Loss That Spurred Pete Sampras To Win 13 More Major Titles

Pete Sampras had one of the greatest careers in tennis history. However, if it wasn’t for a LOSS that Sampras had, he may never have had the Hall of Fame career that he did, winning a then-record 14 major singles titles, including seven at Wimbledon and five at the U.S. Open.

In his book on Sampras called “Pete Sampras: Greatness Revisited” (for sale and download here https://a.co/d/0h5ryR5g

Author Steve Flink features the Sampras career from first major to last, focusing mainly on his 14 major singles titles. However, Flink sets up the Sampras major wins from his second to his 14^th by discussing a match he lost, which disturbed Sampras so much that it served as motivation to push him to be the best player he could be.

We are talking about the 1992 U.S. Open final, when Sampras lost to Stefan Edberg in a four-set final. Sampras had unexpectedly won the U.S. Open in 1990 at age 19 and was thrust into the sports spotlight. It took him the next two years to get settled into his new role on the top of the men’s game and he reached his next major semifinal at Wimbledon in 1992, where he lost to Goran Ivanisevic. His next major was the U.S. Open and Sampras pushed into the final again at Flushing Meadows, but what happened to him at the tail end of his loss, almost disgusted him.

Flink writes about this below and quotes Sampras in an extended commentary from Sampras as well below.

In any event, that Wimbledon loss disturbed Sampras deeply, but not nearly as much as his defeat at the hands of Stefan Edberg in the U.S. Open final later in the summer. Sampras had not been feeling well at the end of his four-set semifinal win over Courier the previous day and had IV treatment afterwards. He had a tough night trying to recover and get back to full force. The word was that he did not get to sleep until 3 am and then he woke up at 8 am still not feeling like himself.

That afternoon, he began auspiciously against the Swede, winning the first set. Edberg took the second but Sampras served for the pivotal third set and was poised to take control of the match. But, uncharacteristically, he did not close out that set as was his custom. He served two double faults at 5-4 in the third and eventually lost the set in a tie-break. As Sampras faded mentally in the fourth set, Edberg coasted home comfortably, winning 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Had he prevailed in that encounter, Sampras would have secured the No. 1 world ranking in the process.

Sampras was convinced then, and had the same feeling as he moved into his late forties, that he did not lose to Edberg because of lingering physical difficulties after the Courier match carrying over into the final. He believed he was beaten by Edberg because he did not fight with the required ferocity. It was a life-altering experience, one that changed him irrevocably as a competitor.

As he said to me in a 2018 interview, “For those couple of years from the 1990 Open that I won until I lost the Edberg final in 1992, I just wasn’t sure what I wanted out of the game I wanted to win, but how much will did I have? How much heart did I have? For those two years I am not sure if I was one hundred percent willing to sacrifice. I got into that final against Edberg and woke up feeling good. I was happy to be in that final. I was not nervous. He didn’t really play that well and I certainly didn’t play all that well. I lost that third set in the tie-break and something popped. My energy in the fourth set completely went away. I did not dig deep and I felt like I went through the motions. I knew the truth of that. For weeks and months after that, I looked myself in the mirror and really asked myself what I wanted.”

Sampras realized he had not lived up to the competitive standards he was demanding from himself. He understood that he had wilted at the end when he should have been battling with all of his heart for survival. As he said, “Nobody really cares who comes in second and that was a tough lesson I learned. Stefan was not playing that well and knowing I could have beaten him stung me a lot. I would not use the word quitting, but I did not fight hard enough in the fourth set. I didn’t fight the way I should have to the very end. That bothered me for weeks and months and for the rest of my career. The feeling that I did not give it my all bothered me more than anything.”

Expanding on that point, Sampras said, “From ‘90 to ’92 there was this uncertainty in me, but the way I lost that Edberg final, I couldn’t have been more clear after that about what I wanted to do. My outlook on my tennis and my life completely shifted after kind of packing it in when I played that fourth set against Edberg. That 30 minutes changed the next 10 years for me. For the rest of my career, from that point forward, I didn’t win every major final, but I felt like I at least fought hard. Maybe I would have learned that lesson in another way later in my career if it hadn’t happened the way it did against Stefan, but that was where the rubber hit the road and it all shifted for me.”