A pediatrician rebuilt young Pete Sampras's backhand with Wimbledon in mind
Peter Fischer was a children's doctor and tennis enthusiast who coached the teenage Sampras until 1989. He had the boy abandon his two-handed backhand for a one-handed stroke, reasoning it would better equip him for grass at Wimbledon. The gamble paid off spectacularly: Sampras went on to win seven Wimbledon singles titles within eight years.
Sampras was born in Washington in 1971 and found a racket in the family basement at age three, spending hours hitting balls against a wall. A 1978 move to Palos Verdes in California let him play most of the year. His idol was Rod Laver, whom he met and played with at eleven. The forehand coach Robert Lansdorp taught him, built on driving through the ball rather than heavy topspin, stayed with him for his whole career.
He turned professional at 16 in 1988, starting that year ranked 893rd and finishing it 97th. Progress then came in a rush. At the 1990 US Open he beat Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Andre Agassi to become the youngest men's champion in the tournament's history, aged 19 years and 28 days. Losing the 1992 final to Stefan Edberg he later called a wake-up call. In April 1993 he reached No. 1 for the first time, then won his first Wimbledon that July and set an ATP record as the first man to hit over 1,000 aces in a single year.
His game rested on serve and volley and a delivery so feared he became known as Pistol Pete. After he beat Boris Becker in the 1995 Wimbledon final with 23 aces and not a single break point faced, Becker conceded that Centre Court now belonged to Sampras. Clay remained his weak spot; at his only Olympics, in 1992 on that surface, he lost in the third round.
He spent 286 weeks at No. 1 and finished six straight years on top. His 14th and final major came at the 2002 US Open against Agassi, after which he retired at 31, then holding the men's record for majors. He entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.
Source: Pete Sampras
