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**aliceingoogs** · 03-24-2012, 08:57 PM

Quickly forgetting that Sampras made the Sf at Paris, won Rome, and in 1995 won the Davis Cup basically by himself, in Moscow, on a clay court that was so watered down by the Russians the ITF fined them for it.
Nobody is saying Sampras was always looking forward to RG. But to say that he was totally inept on the stuff is not accurate either.
(BTW: he won more clay events than Agassi won grass events, and nobody ever says Andre could not play on grass).

I think maybe nobody makes this argument because it doesn't make a ton of sense in context. Half the season was clay and like 6 tournaments were on grass. Pete won 3 clay titles out of 54 entered. Andre won one grass title out of 19 entered (in like 21 years on tour) but that was Wimbledon where he beat Boris, McEnroe and Ivanisevic and then made another final and 3 SF's. Andre was one of the better grass court players in the world and Pete was competent at best on clay. I think his record and performance on clay are totally relevant to his legacy and I think they were a big shortcoming of his - one that he was pretty fine with.

03-24-2012, 08:57 PM	#28
aliceingoogs Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 607 Senior Member	Quickly forgetting that Sampras made the Sf at Paris, won Rome, and in 1995 won the Davis Cup basically by himself, in Moscow, on a clay court that was so watered down by the Russians the ITF fined them for it. Nobody is saying Sampras was always looking forward to RG. But to say that he was totally inept on the stuff is not accurate either. (BTW: he won more clay events than Agassi won grass events, and nobody ever says Andre could not play on grass). I think maybe nobody makes this argument because it doesn't make a ton of sense in context. Half the season was clay and like 6 tournaments were on grass. Pete won 3 clay titles out of 54 entered. Andre won one grass title out of 19 entered (in like 21 years on tour) but that was Wimbledon where he beat Boris, McEnroe and Ivanisevic and then made another final and 3 SF's. Andre was one of the better grass court players in the world and Pete was competent at best on clay. I think his record and performance on clay are totally relevant to his legacy and I think they were a big shortcoming of his - one that he was pretty fine with.
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