It is a stunning collective achievement that no one saw coming when Pete Sampras set the former record of 14 by winning his final tournament, the 2002 U.S. Open. “I’m just amazed at this generation,” Sampras told me in a recent interview. Even after tennis entered the Open era, top men’s players like Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe often skipped the Australian Open or even the French Open. Sampras was one of the first great champions to commit to playing all four majors every year. But the rise of the Big Three has corresponded with a more homogenized, baseline-dominated style.

Source: New York Times July 11, 2021 22:41 UTC