Pete Sampras SuccessStory

Early Life

Pete Sampras was born on August 12, 1971 at Potomac, Maryland. His tennis journey began at the age of 3, when he found an old tennis racquet at the basement of his house. He used that racquet to hit balls against the walls for hours together. His first coach was Peter Fischer who coached Sampras till the age of 18.Sampras became a professional at the age of 16. He started the year 1988, ranked World No.893, but ended the year as World No.97. The next year he improved his game to beat many top 50 players but ended up only improving to No.61 in the world.   

His first Grand Slam singles victory came at the 1989 French Open. He did the unthinkable at the U.S. Open in 1989 when he beat 5th seed Mats Wilander in the second round. Next year he won his first professional title at the Ebel U.S. Pro Indoor in which he defeated his future rival Andre Agassi.At the 1990 U.S. Open, he won his first Grand Slam title by beating Agassi in straight sets to become the youngest U.S. Open champion at the age of 19 years and 28 days. As a result of such impressive performances, he ended 1990 ranked as World No.5.

In 1991, Sampras was able to win the first of his five year ending Tennis Master Cup titles. In 1992, he was runner up at the U.S.Open and also part of the Davis Cup winning U.S. team. In April 1993, Sampras became World No.1 for the first time. He won the Wimbledon and U.S. Open title that year to justify his ranking.