Wimbledon Sampras vs Agassi

Date
Fri 25th June 1993 (UTC)
Fri 25th June 1993 (Local)

Timestamp
1993-06-25T15:00:00

Time

15:00:00 UTC (15:00:00 Local)

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League
ATP World Tour

Season
1993

Round
125

Status

Location
Wimbledon Centre Court

Video Highlights

Play on YouTube

Description

For all of their epic battles, one thing that the ATP Head2Head series between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras lacks is five-set battles. But their 1993 Wimbledon quarter-final that started as a mismatch would end as a compelling affair that marked the first of only two five-set matches in their rivalry.

Sampras withstood a fightback from defending champion Agassi to prevail 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4 in their debut grass-court meeting. Both of them earning the right to face each other in the last eight appeared unlikely 10 days earlier. Agassi struggled with tendonitis in his right wrist before the start of the tournament and Sampras dealt with intense pain in his right shoulder, but Agassi refused to make excuses in defeat.

“The only time I’m devastated over a loss is when I don’t feel like I gave it everything, when I felt like there was something else I could have done. I’m not convinced I could have today,” Agassi said. “He turned out to be the better man in the end."

Agassi admitted that he was “borderline embarrassed” in the first two sets as Sampras’ game plan worked perfectly. He blocked the defending champion’s serve back and frequently sliced his backhand, giving Agassi no pace to work with.

“You’ve really got to make it a mental match with Pete, keep it close and take advantage of a few opportunities,” Agassi said. “But if you allow him to get up… He starts playing off confidence and his ability really shines at that point. It’s hard to stop.”