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End of an era
It was only a fourth-round victory. But when Roger Federer dropped to his knees, à la Bjorn Borg, and stifled tears after winning his Centre Court match Monday, his emotional outpouring seemed entirely appropriate. Federer, after all, had replicated a feat that only one other player had achieved since George Bush the Elder's administration: He beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon.
Yet from the start of the tournament, the sentiment in the locker room was that Sampras was ripe for an upset. Aside from his sluggish play this year, his recent marriage already had diverted his attention from tennis. Also, having reached his long-avowed Holy Grail by winning his record-breaking 13th Grand Slam singles title last year, his motivation was questionable. When a British paper quoted him -- inaccurately, it turned out -- as saying that he would go retire were he to win his eighth Wimbledon this fortnight, it only fueled the belief that a dethroning was nigh. We've seen Sampras play possum before, of course. His shoulders slump, he furrows his brow, he slogs around the court with a hangdog look -- heck, he even vomits on the court. But he still, inexorably, pulls out matches. This year, however, he appeared truly out of sorts. In his second-round match he labored for five sets to beat a British wild card, Barry Cowan, who was ranked outside the top 200. In his next match, he took care of journeyman Sargis Sargsian, but not before drawing the disapproval of the crowd for crassly asking a ballboy to reach into his pants to retrieve a ball. Something was amiss. Sampras' radar was off again Monday as routine shots found their way into the bottom of the net, an easy volley in the decisive game flew several feet past the baseline, those clutch aces he usually fires at will were nowhere to be found. It was somehow poetic that Federer won the match -- Sampras' first five-set loss at Wimbledon -- on a lightning bolt of a return. The player called Pistol had been disarmed. The question now, of course, is what becomes of Sampras, arguably the best player ever. The notion that he would salvage a mediocre year by winning tennis' biggest-ticket event has been obliterated. A month removed from turning 30, he still is without a tournament win in 2001 and, more important, no longer has the imperial presence on tour -- "good for a few games a match," Andre Agassi once said -- that he once did. Time and again, Sampras has repeated that he won't go gently into that good night for several more years. He firmly believes that he's still capable of playing top-shelf tennis. And he need only to glimpse Agassi, who rolled into the quarters on Court 1 against Nicolas Kiefer as Sampras was battling Federer, for inspiration and proof that turning 30 isn't the death knell for a career. His earliest loss at Wimbledon in a decade and the realization that his year-end ranking is in serious peril may well motivate Sampras to recalibrate his machinery, improve his fitness and get back to where he once belonged. But for now, at the All England Club -- several miles from Buckingham Palace -- tennis fans are left with the unmistakable impression that they witnessed a changing of the guard. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.
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