Laurie's Tennis articles

We have taken a look at Pete Sampras game by breaking it down into different facets. I will now take a look at how Sampras performed against his main rivals from the era of the 1990s through early 2000s.  Sampras v Courier It is interesting to look back on Jim Courier’s reign as number 1 in 1992; a player who made the most of his talent with hard work, Jim was compared to Ivan Lendl during this period – not least by Brad Gilbert in his book called “Winning Ugly”.  Courier used Lendl’s tactic of trying to dominate each match with his forehand and was extremely good on clay as a result. However, Courier did not possess natural athletic ability; therefore once his level started to drop at the young age of 23, he found it hard to get it back.   You could argue Sampras played a major part in that, because he frustrated Courier a lot in the major tournaments, Sampras was often in Courier’s way and that would frustrate anyone.  Courier won their 1991 US ...

The grasscourt season has begun and Wimbledon is not too far away.  It is an opportunity to take a look at one of the great grasscourt players and tennis legends.  This article will look at Pete Sampras’ game in detail, and the next article will concentrate on Sampras’ main rivals throughout his career.  Pete’s Serve This is one of Sampras’ most recognisable shots; many regard him as having the greatest serve in the game’s history.  A study was conducted at the 1998 US Open which showed that despite speeds upwards of 120mph, Sampras was able to generate up to 4260rpms; and up to 5357rpms on the 2nd serve, far above any other player.  Other players who served at similar speeds had far less RPMs on the serve on average.    See study here This is one of the reasons why Sampras’ serve was so good, he possessed the ability to generate slice and topspin in equal measure and sometimes combined the two at the same time.  S...