Swiss bliss: King Peter dismissed

Clutch volleys.

Running forehand winners.

Winning tiebreakers and big points.

Getting that solitary break to win a set.

Erasing double and triple-breakers with huge serves.

Pete Sampras won seven Wimbledons and built a legendary career on these five foundations. Heck, he even did all those things on Centre Court yesterday in a fourth round match at the All England Club.

The only problem was that Sampras' opponent, Roger Federer, did them all as well, and did them a little bit better. With fresher legs, greater all-out speed, and a slightly sharper touch at net, the Swiss youngster, playing far beyond his 19 years, dethroned Wimbledon's greatest champion in a five-set classic, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. How significant this match will prove to be is unknown; but the potential for this match to have long-term resonance in the sport of tennis is incredibly great.

Consider the implications of this match as it relates to the long arc of Pete Sampras' career. If Federer's win over Sampras will acquire mythic proportions in the next several years, one can't say the signs weren't there when the moment was made on July 2, 2001.

When Sampras broke through to win his first Grand Slam title at the 1990 U.S. Open, he was 19 years old. His signature win in that tournament -- aside of a win in the finals over Andre Agassi -- was a quarterfinal victory over Ivan Lendl, the king of Louis Armstrong Stadium in the 1980s due to his eight straight appearances in the U.S. Open finals from 1982-1989.

Federer has done to Sampras what Pistol Pete did to Lendl -- beat a man in his living room before the semifinal or championship round of a major tournament. And just as Lendl, though still a dangerous top 10 player, was on the sunset side of his career when Pete got him at Flushing Meadow eleven years ago, Sampras -- while not to be discounted in future slam events by any means -- is obviously not as sprightly or as agile as he used to be.

In terms of other signs Federer can take from his historic upset, two historic losses from Sampras' career can give the emergent 19-year-old some hope for his tennis future.

When Richard Krajicek stopped Sampras cold in the '96 Wimbledon quarters and interrupted Pistol Pete's dominance at The Championships, the big-serving Dutchman entered the zone for the first, last and only time in his tennis life. The convincing straight-set win did not translate into future Grand Slam success for Krajicek, who has not been heard from since that match except for a brief while in 1998, when he lost to Goran Ivanisevic in an epic semifinal, 15-13 in the fifth set.

The other significant loss in Sampras' career, especially in the sense that it was surprising and came on a surface where he was comfortable, occurred just last September at the 2000 U.S. Open, when young Marat Safin -- in a zone even better than Krajicek -- demolished Sampras in three quick sets. Ever since that match, the ultra-talented Russian has failed to recapture that same level of play. Mentally struggling despite his gifted tennis body, Safin has no assurance of staying on top in men's tennis. He's in the Wimbledon quarters this year (and against the aforementioned Ivanisevic), but Safin has a long way to go to win this tournament and to build a legacy for himself.

Roger Federer take heart from these examples, balanced against his victory over Sampras, because his victory over the seven-time Wimbledon champion came in a match where he overcame Sampras' big-point excellence and stared down several adverse situations.

At 4-all and 15-40 in the third set, looking at Sampras' serve, Federer was about to travel a route that all too many players have taken against Pistol Pete: see Sampras open the set with a hold, continue to hold to 5-4 or 6-5, and then get that one break to win the set. Federer knew as much already: he lost the second set in that very fashion.

But just as soon as Sampras seemed ready to close out the ninth game of the third set and get that 5-4 lead, which would have suddenly forced Federer to serve just to stay in the set, the Swiss sensation came up with a hustling volley at the net to get Sampras to deuce. Two points later, the one shot that never seems to desert Sampras -- his majestic, skying forehand overhead -- deserted him, and Federer had broken Sampras on his way to the crucial third-set win.

That taste of pressure, however, was nothing compared to what Federer faced in the ninth game of the fifth set, when he was the one serving at 4-all and 15-40. Sampras had two chances to break and almost certainly close out the match. At 15-40, Federer had to be especially discouraged, because he had to stare down two breakers, and hadn't saved one of them yet. A 30-40 situation, with one breaker having been knocked off, would have been much easier to deal with. But the sense of dread that goes along with 15-40 or love-40 can and does cause many a player to crack, especially against Pete Sampras on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

All Federer did on that 15-40 point was to dig out a solid Sampras return -- a great play not because the return was so good, but simply because of the pressure involved -- and then punch away a Sampras passing shot with a reflex stab volley that was true. Forget the fact that Sampras had a great alley down the line and instead hit his attempted passing shot back toward the middle of the court; Federer had to fight off nerves and parry Sampras' bullet under pressure, and he did.

Having gotten to 30-40, Federer did indeed have an easier time, as he blew Sampras away with the same clutch serves that have made Sampras the all-time great he is. A few games later, Federer was looking at a Sampras serve on match point at Centre Court... a match point that was not on Sampras' racket, but on Federer's. One crisp forehand winner down the line, and the biggest win of Roger Federer's career was complete. And just to show that Federer has the maturity and perspective of someone destined for long-term greatness, the 19-year-old fought off tears as he walked off the court.

He knew how special Wimbledon and Sampras are; he knew he had grown by leaps and bounds; he knew he'd done much more than simply play in a zone; he knew he had persevered and, ultimately, triumphed in the face of Centre Court's greatest champion, becoming the first player to ever win a five-set match from Sampras at Wimbledon.

There's a reason why the crowds are so quiet and the atmosphere is so reverential at Wimbledon. There's a reason why aces or three-stroke rallies, while not aesthetically pleasing, can still offer high-quality tennis: it's because of the tension that precedes each point, the response to pressure that characterizes each point, and the admiration that follows each point.

Pete Sampras, with enough clutch serves and ice-veins volleys to last a lifetime, has shown Wimbledon how great a pressure player he is in a sport that's all about the handful of big points that come in a given match. On July 2, 2001, Roger Federer saw Pete Sampras' good tennis and raised him to excellent, beating Sampras at his own game.

Keep an eye on Sampras at the U.S. Open and future Wimbledons, but watch Roger Federer become the next big thing in the next decade.