Sampras turned professional in 1988, at the age of 16, and finished the year ranked world number 97 after starting the year at world number 893.

Nevertheless, Sampras finished the year as the top-ranked player for the sixth year in a row.

1 ; however, Sampras finished the year at no.

He finished four years ranked as the world's top player ( 1985 – 1987 and 1989 ) and was ranked No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks and set a new record previously held by Jimmy Connors, since broken by Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.

From early on, his great idol was Rod Laver, and at 11, Sampras met and played with him.

However, just one week later at the Lipton International Players Championships in Miami, Sampras defeated two top-40 players before losing to world number 18 Emilio Sánchez.

Sampras beat Agassi in straight sets to become the US Open's youngest-ever male singles champion at the age of 19 years and 28 days.

Sampras in 1991 captured the first of his five career titles at the year-end Tennis Masters Cup.

In 1992, Sampras reached the first round of the French Open for the first of three consecutive years, made it to the Wimbledon semifinals, and was the runner-up at the US Open to Stefan Edberg.

1992 was also the year when Sampras made his only appearance at a Summer Olympics.

Sampras reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in early 1993 losing again to Stefan Edberg and matched the previous year's quarterfinal performance at the French Open.

Except for a loss in the 1996 quarterfinals to eventual winner Richard Krajicek, Sampras continued to win at Wimbledon for the rest of the decade, becoming the most successful male player in Wimbledon history.

Despite his limited success at Roland Garros, Sampras did win some significant matches on clay.

At the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, Sampras lost to Roger Federer, who was 19 at the time, 6 – 7 ( 7 ), 7 – 5, 4 – 6, 7 – 6 ( 2 ), 5 – 7, in the fourth round, ending Sampras's 31-match winning streak at Wimbledon.

Greg Rusedski, whom Sampras had defeated in a long five-set third round match at the US Open, said that Sampras was " a step and a half slower " and predicted that Sampras would lose his next match.

Their next Grand Slam meeting was at the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1993, where Agassi was the defending champion and Sampras was the newly minted world number 1.

The next time Sampras and Agassi met in a Grand Slam final was at Wimbledon in 1999, where Sampras won in straight sets.

On August 2010 Sampras played an exhibition game with Andre Agassi at the indoor arena Coliseo Cubierto El Campin in Bogotá, Colombia.

In 1998, after Rafter defeated Sampras in the Cincinnati Masters final, Sampras, at the time winner of 11 Grand Slams, when asked about the difference between himself and Rafter, famously stated " Ten grand slams ", that a controversial line-call cost him the match, and that a player had to come back and win another Grand Slam title in order to be considered great.

Sampras cited a leg injury as the reason Rafter won, an attitude that upset the generally mild-mannered Aussie: " He really does say some funny things at the wrong time ", said Rafter, " We are out there busting our guts and he doesn't show a lot of respect at the end of the day.

Peter " Pete " Sampras (; born August 12, 1971 ) is a retired American tennis player and former world number 1.

In his first Grand Slam singles match, Sampras lost to world number 69 Jaime Yzaga of Peru in the first round of the US Open.

Sampras did not advance past the quarterfinals in his next three tournaments, although he did record wins over world number 79 Jim Courier in their first career match-up, and world number 8 Tim Mayotte.

The following year, Sampras slightly improved his ranking to a year-ending world number 81.

At the US Open, Sampras defeated defending champion and fifth-seeded Mats Wilander in the second round before losing to world number 13 Jay Berger in the fourth round.

Sampras later stated that his loss in the US Open final that year was a " wake-up call " and that he needed to figure out how to become the world number 1.

In April 1993, Sampras attained the world number 1 ranking for the first time.

Sampras's ranking was hurt through a combination of withdrawing from the Australian and US Opens, tournaments in which he had strong performances during the previous year, and the resurgence of longtime rival Andre Agassi, putting an end to Sampras ' six consecutive years of finishing as the world number 1.

Agassi was favored because he was ranked world number 4, compared to the world number 12 ranking of Sampras and because Agassi had defeated Sampras in their only previously completed match.

Sampras forfeited the world number 1 ranking to Agassi when injury forced Sampras to withdraw from that year's US Open.

The top-ranked Agassi defeated world number 3 Sampras in the semifinals of the Australian Open in five sets.

Sampras had defeated world number 3 Tommy Haas in the fourth round and future world number 1 Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, while Agassi had defeated world number 1 and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals.

Krajicek shocked the tennis world by defeating Sampras in straight sets, 7 – 5, 7 – 6 ( 3 ), 6 – 4, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993 until Sampras ' fourth-round loss to Roger Federer in the 2001 tournament.

He lost in the second round of the Australian Open to Ramesh Krishnan, the quarterfinals of the French Open to Andrei Chesnokov, the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to John McEnroe ( 7 – 6, 3 – 6, 6 – 3, 6 – 4 ), and the second round of the US Open to Pete Sampras ( 5 – 7, 6 – 3, 1 – 6, 6 – 1, 6 – 4 ).

Wilander last played in Davis Cup in the 1995 semifinals, where he lost to Andre Agassi 7 – 6 ( 5 ), 6 – 2, 6 – 2 and Pete Sampras 2 – 6, 7 – 6 ( 4 ), 6 – 3.

The other male players in the open era with winning percentages over 80 are Björn Borg ( 89. 8 ), Rafael Nadal ( 87. 6 ), Roger Federer ( 87. 4 ), Pete Sampras ( 84. 2 ), Jimmy Connors ( 82. 6 ), Ivan Lendl ( 81. 9 ), John McEnroe ( 81. 5 ), Novak Djokovic ( 81. 1 ) and Andre Agassi ( 80. 9 ).

In his first round he defeated Kelly Jones 6 – 2, 6 – 3, in the second round he defeated Darren Cahill 6 – 2, 7 – 5 and in the third round Henman was defeated by Pete Sampras 6 – 1, 6 – 2.

Only Roger Federer ( 6 times ), Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl ( 5 times ) succeeded to win more.

In Chile, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the triumph of the first Chilean to reach the sport's number one ranking, grabbing the position from Pete Sampras ( who had maintained 102 consecutive weeks at number one, and 5 years ending the season as the leader ).

Many famous athletes have been featured in the series, including Rob Ray, Andre Agassi, Ray Allen, Michael Andretti, Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Lance Armstrong, Paul Bearer, Rich Beem, Drew Bledsoe, King Kong Bundy, Bill Bradley, Drew Brees, Kobe Bryant, Mark Buehrle, Kurt Busch, Jennifer Capriati, Brandi Chastain, Chris Chelios, Roger Clemens ( who was in 5 of them, the most of any athlete ), Sidney Crosby, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Carl Edwards, Roger Federer, Kevin Garnett, Ozzie Guillén, Mia Hamm, Jim Harbaugh, Evander Holyfield, Tim Hudson, LeBron James, Keyshawn Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Jim Kelly, Alexi Lalas, Bobby Labonte, Lennox Lewis, Mark McGwire, Shawn Micheals, Gheorghe Muresan, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Candace Parker, Chris Paul, Gaylord Perry, Adrian Peterson, Michael Phelps, Mary Lou Retton, Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Andriy Shevchenko, Jerry Stackhouse, Kerri Strug, Fernando Vargas, Adam Vinatieri, Shaun White, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Tiger Woods, David Wright, Alexander Ovechkin, and The Undertaker.

1 ranked players: 3 – 0 against Andy Roddick, 5 – 5 against Pete Sampras, 2 – 1 against Roger Federer, 2 – 1 against Marat Safin, and 2 – 0 against Jim Courier.

All have won at least 5 Wimbledon singles championships ; Navratilova won 9, while Sampras, Graf, and Federer each won 7.

And again he won both his singles rubbers – against Pete Sampras and Michael Chang – and was on the winning team as Sweden thrashed the United States 5 – 0.

Pete Sampras defeated Andre Agassi, 6 – 3, 6 – 4, 7 – 5

In May 2001 Levy upset the world's top player, Pete Sampras, at the Italian Open, 7 – 5, 2 – 6, 6 – 4, saving 13 of 17 break points.