A version of this article was first published in June 2021
Silence around the stadium as Pete Sampras prepares to serve on match point at Wimbledon. It’s a familiar setting for the American, a seven-time champion, but today is different.
Sampras is not serving for victory this time. Lose this point and he is eliminated.
On the other side of the net his teenage opponent waits, hair in a neat pony tail, wooden bead jewellery around his neck. It’s his first appearance in front of the Centre Court crowd.
Sampras crashes a serve out wide and begins a charge towards the net, he wants to follow up with a signature volley. But the return is too powerful and beyond his reach as it comes thumping down the line. It all happens so quickly. The crowd roars as the 19-year-old winner falls to the ground in disbelief, a five-set epic over in an instant. He has beaten the champion, his idol.
“Game, set and match…
“Federer!”
On 2 July 2001, with world number one Sampras, then aged 29, expected to win a fifth straight Wimbledon title, Roger Federer claimed a stunning victory in the fourth round. It was a breakthrough moment for a young man who has gone on to usurp his hero’s remarkable record at SW19.
Some 21 years later, Federer is retiring from tennis as a 20-time Grand Slam winner. He won Wimbledon eight times – once more than Sampras.
Here, BBC Sport looks back on that Sampras-Federer match-up, the only time these two tennis greats would meet on court in an official match. It was a landmark moment in the evolution of the modern game.
The second Monday of Wimbledon is known as ‘Manic Monday’. All 32 men and women remaining in the singles draws are scheduled to play on the same day and upsets are highly anticipated. Still, there were only a few who might have expected one on Centre Court.
Sampras was going for a record-extending eighth title and had only lost once at the All England Club since 1993. Federer was an enigmatic talent making his way in the game. He’d won the prestigious boys’ championship at Wimbledon in 1998 and was seeded 15, but for many in the crowd, he was an unknown.
Iain Carter was commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live. He’d been first alerted to Federer’s vast potential at the Australian Open the previous year.
“I remember driving into Wimbledon with a real sense of excitement because already Federer had shown signs that he’d be a special talent, you knew he was going to be the…
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