Lord of the Lawn (Pete Sampras)

Member Name: vengius

Product:	Pete Sampras
Date:	26/07/00 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Inspiration personnified

Disadvantages: Still not fully appreciated

I have been a tennis fan for as long as I can remember. In the eighties I used to pretend to be McEnroe, and then Becker, as I bashed a ball mercilessly against the wall of my house. Then at the beginning of the nineties I had a brief, and unforgivable, period of Agassi-mania. That was until I saw Pete Sampras play on Court 2 the second year he won Wimbledon. Can you imagine them putting him on Court 2 these days?!
We had queued in the rain over night, just missed out seeing Agassi on centre court, but got Court 2 tickets instead. I remeber being quite dissapointed. But then a remarkable thing happened. Sampras came out to play, and my whole view of the world or tennis changed in about 2 hours.
I was stunned by what I saw. TV really doesn't do justice to the majesty of this man. It was like watching poetry in motion. This is no exaggeration. Like the greats in any field, there is something magical about watching Pete Sampras on a tennis court. It is like watching a great dancer. He moves incredibly fast, and every move is graceful and yet full of frightening power. Everything is precise, but flows naturally.
I was captivated, and it struck me that this is what it means to be truly great. Poise, grace, control, skill. It wasn't for even a second boring, which is what were shouting at the time, and some still do now. And he didn't need to express emotion through himself because he did it through the tennis.
Every time I see some one great, a musical genius, an author, a politician, I now think of Pete Sampras. That one day changed forever the way I view achievement and ability. I don't think there needs to be discussion of whether he is the greatest player of all time. You only need to watch the way other players crumble when he steps onto, and takes over, a tennis court, to understand that he transcends the argument. Pete Sampras is simply The Greatest.

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