Pete Sampras on Federer

Another past tennis great had something to say about Federer. Before he was inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame, 14-time Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras said this of his meeting with Roger before the AMS tournament at Indian Wells earlier this year :

He came by, and we hit for two days, and it was a lot of fun to not only hit with Roger, but to get to know him a little bit.We talked for two hours after one hit. He's a great guy; he's a funny guy. He's a young kid in a lot of ways.

When he breaks my record, he's the type of person I'd like to see break it. In my opinion, he's what sports is all about.

I was amused--though not surprised--when Sampras remarked that Roger was a "young kid in a lot of ways". Roger certainly seems serious on court but haven't we heard of Roger playing pranks on other players in the locker room? And even more interesting is that Sampras used the word "when" and not "if" when he talked of Federer breaking his record of 14 grand slam titles. Like Borg with Wimbledon, it seems he's accepted the fact that Federer may overtake him in the all-time grand slam winners list.