Hail to the King
Sampras deserves respect for his tennis accomplishments
Posted: Wednesday November 25, 1998 06:04 PM
A CNN viewer called me last week, asking what it would take for Pete Sampras to hold onto his world number one ranking.
She knew that Chile's Marcelo Rios could overtake him at the ATP World Championship in Hanover, Germany and ruin Sampras' hopes of finishing on top of the men's ranking for an unprecedented 6th straight year.
She also knew Sampras held just a slender 33-point lead over Rios.
Most importantly for her, though, she knew Sampras was a true gentleman. She wasn't so sure about Rios and therefore was desperate for her favorite to finish on top. It just seemed the most just and fair thing from a personality point of view.
I enjoyed the conversation, if only because I was thankful there was someone out there who actually cared what happened in Hanover.
I have friends who are crazy about the sport who had no idea what was being played out at the World Championship...with no inkling that history was possibly about to be made.
Indeed, there are people in this very industry of mine who have no grasp on how important a week this is for tennis and sport in general.
Pete Sampras has dominated men's tennis like no one else ever has AP | |
No man has ever finished the year as world number one for six successive years in tennis. Not Rod Laver, not Bjorn Borg, not John McEnroe, not Jimmy Connors (although he impressively did it five straight years).
Few other men in sporting history have dominated like Sampras has. In boxing, Muhammad Ali was king at a time when Joe Frazier and George Foreman could lay claim to the throne. Larry Holmes had that long spell at the top of the heavyweight division, but without ever reaching legendary status.
In golf, Arnold Palmer might have reigned supreme and solitary had Jack Nicklaus not come along. Since the golf world rankings began, the likes of Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods have all enjoyed spells at the top. But asking them to stay there for six years is another matter.
In track and field, Ukrainian Sergey Bubka has been an almost perennial World Champion in the pole vault - undisputedly head and shoulders above the rest, in spite of his occasional big-time failures at the Olympic Games.
Carl Lewis had a golden sprinting spell spanning most of the eighties and early nineties. But he had Ben Johnson stealing some of his glory from 1986 until the Canadian's drug scandal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Yes, the "dominators" are few and far between. It is tough to rule a sport for a lengthy spell and is getting ever more difficult.
That is why Sampras should be held up and revered as one of the all-time greats.
His feats are taken for granted right now. Only after he's left the stage might people truly appreciate how incredible his performances and achievements really were.
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