Pete Sampras pessimistic on leading American men’s chances to win a major : “They’re playing against legends of the game”

The 14-time Grand Slam champion tells L’Equipe Magazine that the current top US players may be squeezed out by the new generation

Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic

Simon Cambers

August 28, 2022

Pete Sampras was part of a golden generation of American men’s tennis.

Sampras (14), Andre Agassi (8), Jim Courier (4) and Michael Chang (1) won 27 Grand Slam titles between 1990 and 2003; Sampras won the first, at the US Open in 1990 and Agassi the last, at the 2003 Australian Open.

When Andy Roddick then won the US Open in 2003 it seemed as if American men would continue to pick up slam titles but unfortunately for them, Roger Federer came along. Then Rafael Nadal. And then Novak Djokovic, not to mention Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. No American man has won a slam since.

The domination of the big three in particular – they’ve won 63 of the past 76 slam titles – has not left much room for anyone else and for all the talent in the current generation of American men, none of them have yet reached a Grand Slam semi-final.

Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka, Frances Tiafoe, Maxime Cressy, Tommy Paul and Jenson Brooksby are all ranked in the world’s top 50 while the likes of Petra Korda are close behind.

Retrouvez une interview exclusive de Pete Sampras dans @lemaglequipe 🎾

L'Américain revient sur sa victoire surprise à l'@usopen en 2002.

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But in an interview with L’Equipe Magazine, Sampras said he doubted whether any of them could make the ultimate breakthrough, mostly through no fault of their own.

“They are very good players,” he said. “Unfortunately, they play against legends of the game. Novak, Rafa. No disrespect to them, but it’s not certain that a Grand Slam winner will emerge from this generation, whereas Carlos Alcaraz is getting stronger and Alexander Zverev is making steady progress.

“And then there is Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev. These players represent the future of tennis, the future of the next five to 10 years.”