So who is best men’s tennis player in modern times: Pete Sampras or Roger Federer? We may get a glimpse of the answer tonight as Sampras and current world number one Federer will square off in a historic and dream tennis exhibition match at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Sampras, who has come out of retirement to play a series of exhibition matches, won 14 Grand Slam titles during his career while Federer currently has 12 and is expected to surpass Sampras’s win total before his career is done. The only time the two met on the tour was in a five-game set in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2001, which Federer won. At that time, Sampras was nearing the end of his stellar career, and Federer was just beginning his climb to the top. The two champions also faced each other in three previous exhibition matches in November: Federer won two and Sampras won the third.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of shape Federer is in. He has struggled in the last few matches and failed to make it to the final at the Australian Open. He recently admitted that he was diagnosed with mononucleosis in February.
The exhibition is a fundraising event that benefits Dream Vaccines Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that tests and delivers AIDS and malaria vaccines to poor and underserved populations. The match will be broadcast nationally on the Tennis Channel at 8:30 Eastern time.
No comments:
Post a Comment