1 ; however, Sampras finished the year at no.

In the final however, the years past-his-prime Becker, further fatigued after grueling baseline contests with Cédric Pioline and then with Agassi, ran out of gas after winning the first set in a tiebreak, and lost in four sets to Pete Sampras.

In the 1997 U. S. Open, he was the odds-on favorite to win after Sampras was upset by Petr Korda ; however, Chang lost to eventual champion Patrick Rafter in the semifinals in straight sets.

Sampras however went on to win the tournament.

He did however have the distinction of being one of the few players to beat Sampras at Wimbledon, knocking him out in the first round in 1989.

He defeated Sampras, then the World No. 2, 8 – 6 in the fifth set at the French Open in a first-round match, but lost in the fourth round to Juan Carlos Ferrero.

His best performance in the year-end singles championship came in 1995, when he defeated Muster, Jim Courier, and then shockingly dominated Pete Sampras in the semifinals, before losing in the final to Boris Becker.

At the US Open, he defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals and then Jimmy Connors in the semifinals before losing the final to Edberg.

In 1993, following wins over Pete Sampras and Andrei Medvedev, Bruguera reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where he faced two-time defending champion and then World No. 2 Jim Courier.

He defeated world number 1 Pete Sampras at Indian Wells on hardcourt and managed to repeat the feat defeating the then number 1 Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 on hardcourt as well.

Forget teamed up with Henri Leconte to win the doubles rubber, and then won the decisive singles rubber against Pete Sampras as France shocked the heavily favoured US team to win 3 – 1.

Pete Sampras was unsuccessful in his 2000 title defence, being defeated by then little-known 19-year-old Roger Federer in the fourth round.

Pete Sampras ( and before him Yannick Noah ) popularized the jump smash, where the player jumps and then hits the smash in mid-air.

1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the semifinals and defeated then-four-time champion Pete Sampras the next day in straight sets.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

In arguably their most memorable match, Sampras defeated Agassi in the 2001 US Open quarterfinals 6 – 7, 7 – 6, 7 – 6, 7 – 6.

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.

Sampras defeated Agassi in four sets.

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.

On February 18, 2008, in an exhibition match during the SAP Open, Sampras defeated another active player, former world No. 2 Tommy Haas.

In the quarterfinals of that tournament he defeated Pete Sampras.

He won two hard-court titles, including the Lipton International Players Championships, the same tournament where his career had nearly ended just eight years earlier — by defeating Sergi Bruguera in the final, after Bruguera had defeated Pete Sampras in the semifinals.

Becker defeated Sampras in October 1996 in a five-set final in Stuttgart.

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.

However, Henman's winning streak did not last long, and in the second round he met Sampras, and was defeated 6 – 2, 6 – 3, 7 – 6.

Sampras won the first of his two Australian Open titles in 1994, defeating American Todd Martin in the final.

Sampras lost a five-set US Open semifinal to the eventual winner Patrick Rafter, after leading the match two sets to one.

After this victory, Sampras did not win another title for more than two years.

After a four-set battle between the two veterans, Sampras claimed a then-record 14th Grand Slam singles title and matched Jimmy Connors's record of five US Open singles championships.

Sampras won 64 top-level singles titles ( including 14 Grand Slam titles, 11 Super 9 / ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and five Tennis Masters Cup titles ) and two doubles titles.

Sampras won his first two events on tour, defeating Todd Martin in both finals ( one of which included Sampras's first trip to his ancestral homeland, Greece ).

Two days later in Kuala Lumpur, Sampras again lost to Federer in two tiebreaks.

However, Sampras was able to win the last match of the series, winning in two sets on fast carpet.

In 2009 Sampras won two Outback Champions Series titles.

Edberg's final two Grand Slam singles triumphs came at the US Open, with wins over Jim Courier in the 1991 final and Pete Sampras in the 1992 final, who was just months away from being ranked No. 1 in the world.

Blanco had two high profile wins in majors, beating former 2-time US Open Champion, Patrick Rafter, in the first round of the 2000 US Open, and in beating Pete Sampras in the second round of the 2001 French Open.

They have two sons, Christian Charles Sampras ( b. November 21, 2002 ) and Ryan Nikolaos Sampras ( b. July 29, 2005 ).

In 1995, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras met in the final, the third of the four times that the two top-ranked men's players would meet that year, after the Australian Open and Indian Wells Masters.

Marat Safin won his first US Open title and first of two Grand Slams, defeating Pete Sampras in the final, and Venus Williams defeated Davenport to win the women's title.

He beat Marat Safin in Kitzbühel and pushed Pete Sampras to two tie-breakers in US Open's third round.