Roger Federer has made a revelation that some may find a bit surprising as the Swiss tennis icon shares his favorite match didn’t come in one of his meetings with Rafael Nadal but in his first and lone encounter with the great Pete Sampras.
After earning his first three Wimbledon wins in 2001, the then 19-year-old Federer got a chance to play his idol Sampras in the round-of-16. And it turned into a classic, which Federer won 7-6 5-7 6-4 6-7 7-5. At the time, Sampras was a seven-time Wimbledon champion and he was aiming for his fourth consecutive title at The Championships when the Swiss ended his run.
After Federer went on to win a record eight Wimbledon titles and become an absolute icon at The All England Club, many went back to the Sampras match and highlighted how it was actually the passing of the torch from one Wimbledon great to another.
And in his recent interview with Vogue, the 43-year-old Swiss was asked if anything comes to his mind when someone mentions July 2nd, 2001.
“July 2001—it must be Wimbledon. Is it the Sampras match? I don’t know the date, per se—it’s not ingrained in my brain—but that match against Sampras is my favorite match of all time,” Federer told Vogue.
Federer explains why it was his favorite clash ever
As mentioned above, Sampras was the absolutely dominant Wimbledon force at the time and also the top-ranked player in the world. While Federer was regarded as one of the most promising and talented players in the game 23 years ago, there was no doubt that Sampras was the big favorite going into their match.
But on the court, there wasn’t much separating the two and Federer ended up sending home his idol and the No. 1 favorite for the title. Reflecting on that now, the former 20-time Grand Slam champion pretty much says it all looked like script-written.
“It had everything: He was my hero at the time, and this was both my first time and my only time to play against Sampras. It was the first time I played on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and it turned into five sets. There was just so much going on in my head, it was fairytale stuff,” Federer explained.
“And I don’t know if this was the first time or the second time in my career when I cried after winning—I cried when I beat the Americans 3-1 at the Davis Cup in Basel, my hometown, and I was able to help the team with three points to win it and clinch it, but I don’t remember if that was before or after—but when I went onto my knees after my forehand return against Sampras landed in and all of that pressure just fell away, I started crying.
“I’m like, ‘This is surreal—what is going on? But I guess Wimbledon and Sampras and Centre Court, I don’t know—all of that does that to you. And that’s when you realize: Oh—the hard work’s paying off. You’re on the right track. It’s a milestone victory. It was like the perfect match.”
Sampras’ special tribute to Federer
After Federer announced his plans to end his astonishing pro tennis career after the 2022 Laver Cup, many past and present players paid their tributes. And one of them was former 14-time Grand Slam champion Sampras, who recalled their Wimbledon meeting and explained how he knew from Day 1 that the Swiss was destined for great things in the game.
“Not really sure where to begin, so I’ll just start from the very beginning. When I first played you, you were 19 years old, an up-and-coming player and people were talking about you. And we had a great battle on the Centre Court of Wimbledon. And you took me down. Tough five-setter. And I just remember walking off the court, feeling like I met my match. Little did I know, 20 years later, that you would have 20 majors, be number one for years, dominate our sport – basically do it all,” Sampras said in a video tribute posted after Federer’s retirement.
Meanwhile, Federer has been asked numerous times since retiring if there were any chances of him picking up the racket again and playing pro tennis. But the answer has always been the same as Federer – who turned 43 on August 8th – underlined several times that the pro tennis chapter was 100 percent closed.
Now, Federer is able to spend more time with his family and kids and that’s something that’s very important to him at this stage of his life.