The last sporting event that caught attention, especially of the tennis fans all over the planet was the series of 3 exhibition matches between Sampras and Roger. A surprising statistic that will forever amuse tennis lovers all over is that Sampras and Roger played each other only once in all competition. And we all know the result. So I thought it was quite unfair to all of us to have never seen these two legends fight it on-court a few more times. It was more unfair to Pete to have an overall record of 0-1 against Fedex. It somehow does not do justice to Sampras, his legacy. So this was like a dream come true, ala the movie Rocky Balboa. Sampras had been retired for almost 5 years. But the news was that he was training and all geared up for the challenge. Roger was on song winning the last tournament of the year, the prestigious ATP Masters Cup. No one knew how, the now visibly aged Sampras would play against Roger who is at his peak. There was a lot of anticipation. Almost every sports website was covering the event through the web.

The first match was a totally one sided, Roger winning. But one could still see Pete serve and volleying. The serve was still good. But there were a lot of unforced error from Pete. And who can blame Pete. He had not played tennis for the last 5 years.

The second one was a better contest, Federer won 7-6, 7-6 in just under 90 minutes. But one could see Pete’s game taking shape. And in the final match of the series in Macau, Pete pulled out one of his most unlikely win. The whole sporting fraternity was abuzz with the news. It sort of vindicated the champion that Pete is to his loyal fans. Though the series was an exhibition, from what I saw on YouTube, it was clearly well fought out.

In the end, I thought the series was a great way to play tribute to probably the two greatest legends in tennis in my lifetime; it was good to see the games played in the best of spirits. Also it brought out the tremendous respect that these two have for each other. It is unfair to compare the two of them, and speculate who is the greatest, as they both played in two different times. All we can claim is that I was there when they created history!