Chapter 88 Legendary Figures
The Olympics, the World Cup, and the World Championships are known as the three great events in the world. Each event can attract global attention and spark thousands of topics. Their significance has long exceeded competitive sports itself. They are also a high degree of combination of commercial value and urban planning.
Every competitive sport has its own top tournaments and highest honors, and tennis is no exception.
As an individual sport and long a sport for aristocratic gentlemen, tennis has refused to be professionalized for a very long time.
Simply put, those top events are all private club models. They only allow their members, that is, non-professional players to participate; and professional players can only participate in small events with professional sponsors because the nobles refuse to commercialize this sport.
The key point is that those events with a long history, glorious tradition and strong influence all continue the "private club" model, which has also prevented the professionalization of tennis from being promoted.
Among them, there are four most famous top club events: The Wimbledon Club Championship, which started in London, England in 1877, is a grass court event. It was originally an internal event of a private club.
In 1881, the United States Men's Tennis Championship was founded in New York, USA. It is a hard court event that initially only allowed players from the United States National Tennis Association to participate.
In 1891, the French Tennis Championships officially began in Paris, France. It was a clay court event that initially only allowed members of the French Tennis Club to participate.
In 1905, Australia started the Australasian Championships in Melbourne. It was originally a grass court event and was not converted into a hard court event until 1988. The original intention of holding this event was to facilitate cultural exchange between Australia and New Zealand.
Including the four events mentioned above, they only allow amateur players to participate.
In the early days of tennis, amateur players and professional players were two completely different systems with different organizations behind them. They also prohibited their players from participating in competitions not organized by themselves, which also slowed the commercialization process of tennis.
However, players' protests, organizational games, and struggles for interests have always been happening. After multiple power struggles and confrontations, change finally came.
In 1968, the French Tennis Championships took the lead in making changes. They changed their name to the "French Open" and officially accepted professional players to participate.
This year is also known as the "first year of the Open Tournament". Before 1968, it was the non-open tournament era, and the champions of those top tournaments were often non-professional amateur players; after that, it was the open tournament era, and professional players officially became the main participants in major tournaments.
Of course, after the French Open changed, it still ushered in a few years of turmoil. After the struggle for power, it was not until 1972 that it finally stabilized and formed the professional tennis system that has continued to this day.
ITF, the International Tennis Federation, is mainly responsible for the four Grand Slams, youth events, and team competitions based on countries, etc.
ATP, the Association of Professional Tennis Players, is responsible for organizing tours at all levels for men.
WTA, the Women's Tennis Association, is mainly responsible for the organization of women's tours at all levels.
The three organizations are independent of each other and have many conflicts of interest, but they also cooperate with each other to assist in the operation of the entire professional tennis world.
In today's professional tennis tournament system, the highest honor is the Grand-Slam-Tournaments, because the tournaments have the longest history, the most participants and the highest prize money, and of course, most importantly, the highest points level in the three major tennis organizations.
The four Grand Slams are the four tournaments with a deep historical heritage mentioned above: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon Tennis Championships and US Open.
For any player to win a Grand Slam title is the highest honor in his career!
If he can win all four Grand Slams, it is called a "Grand Slam". If he can also win the Olympic gold medal, it is called a "Golden Slam".
In the Open Era, the most legendary superstar in men's professional tennis is none other than Pete Sampras. Born in 1971, this player won the U.S. Open for the first time in 1990, becoming the youngest men's singles champion in the history of the tournament, and he has been unstoppable ever since.
During Sampras' career, the number of weeks he was ranked world number one, the number of year-end world number one rankings, the total prize money in professional tournaments, etc. are all historical record holders; moreover, he won a total of 14 Grand Slam titles, which is also unique in history.
The only regret is that Sampras was never able to conquer the French Open, and lacked a Grand Slam title to achieve the glory of a "Grand Slam".
When Sampras announced his retirement on the opening day of the 2003 U.S. Open, countless experts believed that the record of 14 Grand Slam titles would not be broken for a long, long time.
However, in 2009, Swiss player Roger Federer first tied Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams, and then broke the record the following year. As of 2014, his number of Grand Slam titles had reached 17, which was considered an unattainable height.
However, at this moment, no one would have thought that after 2014, miracles would still be born, history would still be made, and the two most glorious and brilliant decades of men’s tennis would not stop writing myths.
Although historical records are being broken step by step by younger generations, Sampras is still one of the most influential and iconic idols in professional tennis. Until 2014 and until 2021, Sampras' name and records are still a part that cannot be ignored when people discuss tennis history.
There is no doubt that Sampras is a legend.
Today, the "Pete" who appeared next to Sofar was none other than the legendary Pete Sampras.
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After retiring, Sampras never left tennis. He can be seen in commentary booths, exhibition games, charity events and other occasions. Today, he came as a special guest to commentate on the Los Angeles Derby. The most important reason is that he has a direct connection with the Brown Bears.
Sampras's sister, Stella Sampras, is the head coach of the Bruins women's tennis team.
He was also very interested in the game between the Bruins and the Trojans, and when he received the invitation from ESPN, he nodded and agreed without hesitation.
At this time, facing Sofar's question, Sampras also said frankly, "I think the deployment of the coaches on both sides is well thought out. We only see the surface, but we should all know that competitive sports have never been determined by rankings and words."
Although he didn't say it explicitly, one can sense from his words that Sampras was actually saying that there might be surprises in this match and that Gawain should not be underestimated.
Sampras turned to look at Sofar and asked with a smile, "You just watched the Bruins' game three days ago. What do you think?"
The question was thrown back again.
(End of this chapter)