Why Pete Sampras still merits a place in GOAT conversations
In today's day and age, when people are asked who the greatest tennis player of all time is, their answer would typically be Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. There was a time, however, when a lot of people would have said a different name - Pete Sampras.
During the 1990s, Sampras elevated men's tennis to new heights and dominated the decade like Federer would in the 2000s and Djokovic would in the mid-2010s. But since the emergence of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic 'trivalry', the American's name has been excluded from the GOAT conversation - perhaps unfairly.
With Sampras winning 'only' 14 Grand Slams, the Big 3 have all surpassed him comfortably in the numbers game. And because of that, many feel that he can no longer be a viable candidate for the GOAT conversation; though he may be consistently placed just below the Big 3, he is rarely, if ever, ranked alongside them.
At first glance, it is easy to see why. But upon deeper examination, the situation becomes a bit more complicated, especially concerning Nadal.
If we look at time spent as World No. 1, Nadal's 200 weeks, whilst impressive, pales in comparison to Sampras's 286 weeks. Furthermore, Sampras was able to hold the top spot for a much greater period consecutively than Nadal has been able to. The Spaniard's longest stint of 56 consecutive weeks is nearly half of Sampras's best of 102 weeks, and even less than his second-best of 82 weeks.
If we look at Grand Slams, we can see that Nadal is comfortably ahead with 19 Slams to Sampras's 14. But this does not show the whole picture; if we break down their tallies, we can see that Sampras was more successful at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open than Nadal has been. It is only at the French Open that Nadal has been superior.
A similar trend emerges when looking at their titles won. Though Nadal has won considerably more titles on clay than Sampras, the American has won more titles on hard, grass and indoors than Nadal.
Finally, if we look at the fifth most important tournament of the season, the World Tour Finals, we can see that Sampras has won five titles there to Nadal's zero. Suddenly, Sampras looks like he deserves more consideration when discussing the greatest tennis players of all time.
Admittedly, part of the reason for Nadal's skewed numbers is that he had to face Federer and Djokovic during their primes. But Sampras rival's were no slouches either; during his career, he fought off the likes of Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl and more.
Whilst none of these men are quite at the level of the Big 3, they're no pushovers either. In fact, many of them are widely considered all-time greats of the game.
Although Sampras's statistics fall short against Federer's and Djokovic's in nearly every category, they do hold up against Nadal's and even exceed him in surfaces other than clay. That has to count for something.
This is not to make the case that Sampras is the true GOAT of tennis; it is just to remind ourselves how good he was. Sampras may be a bit of a forgotten legend today, but he deserves to be mentioned in the GOAT conversations and not merely as an afterthought.