Home › Tennis › #Tennis – #Sampras: ‘I Let My Racquet Do The Talking’

#Tennis – #Sampras: ‘I Let My Racquet Do The Talking’

By Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng on July 3, 2020 • ( 0 )

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Career of Pete Sampras:

First Week As No. 1: 12 April 1993
Total Weeks At No. 1: 286
Year-End No. 1: 1993-1998

As World No. 1

With 286 weeks at the top of the FedEx ATP Rankings, Sampras is second on the all-time list for most weeks at No. 1 (although Novak Djokovic was just four weeks from that mark when the ATP Tour and the FedEx ATP Rankings were suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19). The American first took the No. 1 spot from Jim Courier on 12 April 1993 and held onto it for the majority of the next seven years, finally relinquishing it for good to Marat Safin on 20 November 2000.

Although seven other players would grab the No. 1 ranking during Sampras’ reign of dominance, Andre Agassi was the only player to hold onto it for more than a handful of weeks. His longest stretch at the top lasted for 102 weeks (15 April 1996 – 29 March 1998) and is the fifth-longest run at No. 1 in ATP Tour history. The American is also the only player to hold the year-end No. 1 ranking on six occasions (1993-1998).