This week in the online Sports Illustrated tennis section, Justin Gimelstob talks about his practice sessions in Los Angeles with Pete Sampras.
According to Gimelstob, Pete is playing great tennis . He claims Pete is playing as well as anybody not named Federer.
Gimelstob mentions that Sampras is playing with a newer, larger head size frame, and is using some of the newer strings as well ( probably a polyester or a gut/polyester hybrid). Justin implies that these equipment changes have added to Sampras' game. Can you imagine the Sampras serve with even more spin?
Gimelstob casually mentions that he believes Sampras is one of the few players in the world today who can rob Federer of time. He doesn't go into detail about this but it goes along with what I've written in the past.
I believe that the type of player who could beat Federer consistently, and on fast courts, would have to be able to do some things very well:
1. Serve well and finish off the point with a volley. Roddick serves well but allows Federer to float back returns because he doesn't look to hit first volleys. Sampras would eat up floating returns and force Fed to go for more and consequently miss more.
2. Attack the Federer second serve. Put pressure on Fed by chipping and charging the second serve. Again, Sampras is one of the few modern players who has the skills to do this.
3. Flatten out the forehand to take away Fed's time to set up. Again, Sampras hits a very flat forehand as his basic forehand.
I know that some people will write and mention that Federer beat Sampras in their only meeting which happened to be on Sampras's favourite surface at Wimbledon. But, really one match doesn't enough to draw the conclusion that Federer would have Sampras's number.
Here is the link to the Gimelstob article. Comments anyone?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/justin_gimelstob/12/21/sampras.federer/index.html
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies An Ebook of Mental Tennis Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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