In the era of social media, access to the past can be instant and there’s now rarely a need to look through books on dusty shelves. So if curiosity gets the better of 12-year-old Ryan and 15-year-old Christian Sampras today, they can simply type ‘Pete Sampras’ online and see for themselves the commitment, will and drive of their father, an iconic figure in the sport of tennis. “They are now both interested in what I did, watching clips on YouTube, and seek my advice about what they need to do and how much commitment it takes,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com. “Ryan’s now 12, and at the stage where he must take his tennis more seriously if he is to get better.”

Today, 25 years ago, on 12 April 1993, the American throwback to a bygone era, reared on stories of the great Australians of the 1950s and 1960s, started his journey at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. For much of Sampras’ career, his opponents weren’t just the likes of Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Marcelo Rios — incidentally, four of the eight players who knocked him off the top spot during his 286 total weeks at the pinnacle of men’s professional tennis — but the historic greats, such as Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson.

“Every kid says they’d like to be World No. 1 as a dream growing up, but you don’t really mean it,” said Sampras. “The goal for me was always to win Wimbledon, to be mentioned in the same breath as Laver and Rosewall, but being No. 1 was the icing on the cake… Staying at No. 1 was the hardest part. You need heart, mind and talent to be a No. 1 for years. You need the heart to win when you’re not playing your best. You need the mind to overcome challenges and a strong will that few possess. You really need the whole package. It doesn’t come so often, it’s really something the all-time greats – such as [Roger] Federer and [Rafael] Nadal – have.”

Initially, Sampras wondered if he’d been left behind in a talented generation of American players, including Agassi, Michael Chang and Courier, who had first risen to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on 10 February 1992 and won four Grand Slam championship titles by the age of 22. But Sampras, with one major to his name at the 1990 US Open, used Courier as his yardstick. “With Jim doing well, I remember the general feeling of wanting that too,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com, 25 years on. “His success and performances opened my eyes to being the No. 1. He had matured earlier than me and pushed me to work harder. I first got comfortable being No. 3, No. 2, but then it became a case of, ‘Yes, I can do that. I’m ready to be No. 1.’”

From ATP Vault (2014): Watch Sampras Uncovered

After Courier was upset by Jonathan Stark 6-4, 6-2 in the third round at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, Sampras stepped out onto centre court at the Ariake Coliseum on 9 April 1993 knowing that a quarter-final victory over fellow American David Wheaton would guarantee him No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Distracted by the prospect a couple of times during his 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory, en route to that week’s Tokyo title (d. Brad Gilbert), it gave Sampras 3,591 points to Courier’s 3,563 points in the ATP Rankings. At 21 years and eight months, Sampras had become the fourth American at No. 1 — after Jimmy Connors (268 total weeks at No. 1), John McEnroe (170 weeks) and Courier (58 weeks) — and [at that time] was also the fourth youngest leader at the top of men’s professional tennis.

In the space of 12 calendar months, Sampras compiled an 80-16 match record, and seven titles from nine tour-level finals — including a runner-up finish at the 1992 US Open (l. to Stefan Edberg). While Sampras admitted getting to No. 1 in April 1993 was a “great achievement”, he wasn’t entirely happy. Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com, “I prepared to be No. 1 and when I got there, there was satisfaction, but it wasn’t until after I won Wimbledon (d. Courier) a few months later that I felt I deserved it. But certainly, after getting to No. 1, [my coach] Tim [Gullikson] and I felt that we could now push and work harder in order to win another major.”

Six days after Sampras first attained No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, the American hit 15 aces to beat defending champion Courier 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(2) over nearly three hours, in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, for his fourth crown of 1993 (also Sydney, Miami and Tokyo). Thereafter, for all but three weeks of that season, Sampras held onto the No. 1 ranking and he set an ATP World Tour record by becoming the first player to serve more than 1,000 aces in a year.

“I didn’t feel the impact of being No. 1 immediately,” remembers Sampras, who went 85-13 and won eight titles — including Wimbledon and the US Open — in 1993. “It was only when I came to Wimbledon, when there was the expectation that I could win a major or a big title that I felt that there really was an ‘X’ on my chest. It was in London that I realised I had the mind, the will and heart to be No. 1. You conduct more interviews and you really figure out what it means to be No. 1, how you’re going to go about holding onto it. In the end, it’s about winning matches and big tournaments.”

Between 19 April 1993 to 19 November 2000, Sampras spent 11 different stints at No. 1 – 12 April-22 August 1993 (19 weeks), 13 September 1993-9 April 1995 (85 weeks), 6 April 1995-28 January 1996 (12 weeks), 19 February-10 March 1996 (three weeks), 15 April 1996-29 March 1998 (102 weeks), 27 April-9 August 1998 (15 weeks), 24 August 1998-14 March 1999 (29 weeks), 29 March-2 May 1999 (five weeks), 14 June-4 July 1999 (three weeks), 2 August-12 September 1999 (six weeks) and 11 September-19 November 2000 (10 weeks).

“It was comfortable being No. 1,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com. “I knew what I needed to sacrifice and worked really hard to be there for six straight year-end No. 1 finishes [1993-98]. There were times when I lost it to Agassi, Rafter or Rios, but it came down to where I was in December, not February. I would keep tabs on results and I knew I could always push in March, play extra tournaments and pick up points here and there.

“The one time I really worked hard to be No. 1 was in 1998, when I lost and won No. 1 a few times. I played a couple of extra weeks in Europe in order to break Jimmy Connors’ mark of five straight year-end No. 1s, a record that still means a lot to me. When I lost the top spot in November 2000, I wasn’t sad by any means. I had nothing to prove and I was okay with being No. 2 or No. 3. It took a lot of energy, the will and drive to maintain the ranking, and to win a lot of matches. But perhaps being No. 1 for so long also shortened my career.”

Sampras’ record of 286 weeks at No. 1 stood for almost 12 years until 16 July 2012, when Federer broke the mark. The Swiss superstar spent his 308th week in the top spot as recently as 1 April this year. Sampras ultimately retired after winning the 2002 US Open, his 14th major crown, a haul that has been bettered by Federer (with his sixth Wimbledon title in July 2000) and current No. 1 Rafael Nadal (with his 10th Roland Garros crown in June 2017).

On 26 November 1998, the American was eating pasta in his Hanover hotel, ahead of the 1998 Nitto ATP Finals, when he learned that he had attained the milestone of six straight year-end No. 1 finishes (1993-98). That achievement still stands.

LEADING NUMBER ONES
A list of leading players for most weeks and year-end finishes at No. 1 in the history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973):

* Current World No. 1 (as of 9 April 2018)

Every star has had their start here. Regardless of potential and promise, all players have come through the ATP Challenger Tour as they begin their climb to the upper echelons of the game.

For some, the ascent to the top is lightning fast, rapidly progressing through the level en route to the ATP World Tour. Only seven players have lifted a Challenger trophy at the age of 16 and under. It’s no surprise that Rafael Nadal belongs to that exclusive club.

Exactly 15 years ago, Nadal stepped on the clay courts of the Tennis Club Hugo Simmen in Barletta, Italy, and the future World No. 1 would emerge with his first crown. It was a harbinger of the Spaniard’s future, as one of the brightest, most precocious young talents to pick up a racquet made his mark. 

“Challengers are some of the biggest tournaments too and it’s important to have this step before coming to the ATP World Tour,” Nadal said. “Everything was new for me in that moment. And then Monte-Carlo was the first big tournament that I played. I started to play Challengers at that time and won the title in Barletta. So I had a lot of confidence. I played against players that I knew very well from those Challengers.”

Nadal would defeat countryman Albert Portas 6-2, 7-6(2) in the final at the Open Citta Della Disfida, announcing his arrival in front of a packed crowd in the eastern Italian coastal town. At the ripe age of 16 years and nine months, Nadal is the seventh-youngest winner in the history of the ATP Challenger Tour. 

“He was already playing very well and the whole world was talking about him,” reflected countryman and all-time Challenger match wins leader Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, who fell to Nadal in the first round. “I said to myself, ‘OK let’s see how the kid plays’. During the match, he played really good and above all had an incredible mentality. You could already see it.”

His arrival was swift and commanding, making his ATP World Tour Masters 1000 debut as a qualifier a few weeks later in Monte-Carlo. He would break into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings with a third-round finish in the Principality. And just four months later, Nadal made his Top 50 debut after notching his second Challenger crown in front of the home faithful in Segovia.

Nadal would not stay at the Challenger level for long, competing in just one more event before making the transition to the ATP World Tour.

Nick Kyrgios has overcome a slow start in his first clay-court singles outing of the season to see off the threat of home hopeful Bjorn Fratangelo in the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship on Wednesday night. In his River Oaks debut, the 22-year-old Australian rebounded for a 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2 victory over Fratangelo, the No.108 in the ATP Rankings.

The American had registered a win over Kyrgios’s countryman Jordon Thompson in the opening round on Monday. That same day, Kyrgios had opened his Houston doubles campaign, partnering good friend and countryman Matt Reid in a loss to Ivo Karlovic and Daniel Nestor.

After his first fourth ATP World Tour-level title and first on home soil at the Brtisbane International presented by Suncorp in January, Kyrgios backed it up with a solid run to the fourth round at the Australian Open. But back and right elbow injuries have since stunted the Aussie’s impressive start to the season, forcing his withdrawal from four tournaments before he reached the fourth round at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Zverev) last month.

Kyrgios has a shot at avenging his opening-round doubles loss when he meets Ivo Karlovic in his next singles outing. Kyrgios, the World No. 24, has never lost to the Croatian in four prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings. Karlovic earlier edged past qualifier Denis Kudla 7-5, 7-5.

Argentine Guido Pella pulled off the upset of the day when he surprised second-seeded American Sam Querrey 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3). Pella had lost to the World No. 14 in their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter in the first round at the US Open in 2013.

Querrey had finished runner-up in Houston twice before (20010, 2015). The Argentine surged back from 2-4 down in the deciding set and served for the match at 6-5 before closing it out on his second match point in the deciding set tie-break. He will next meet American No. 8 seed Tennys Sandgren, a 6-2, 7-6(3) over Pella’s countryman Nicolas Kicker.

Looking back on it, it was weird that I hadn’t heard from Mom in a few days. We usually talked every day, sometimes more, even if I was busy with tennis and classes at the University of Georgia.

It was February 2004, and I was in the second semester of my freshman year. We were beginning our spring tennis season, my game was in a good place, and we had just finished another weekend of matches. Life was good.

But when I woke up at around 8 a.m. in my McWhorter Hall dorm room to two missed calls, I thought something was definitely up. Maybe something had happened to one of my grandparents? Maybe, but surely nothing to Mom, not to the woman who had survived raising my two older brothers and me. Besides, she was in good health – she played tennis, lifted weights, ran – and she was only 50.

I was alone when I called her back.

“I’m going to tell you something but I don’t want you to worry. It’s going to be OK,” she said.

“But there’s a reason why I haven’t spoken to you the last few days.

“I have cancer.”

***

Cancer, at that point in my life – I was 18, two months away from my 19th birthday – had been something I had read about in the news or something, unfortunately, that had happened to relatives or parents of friends. It wasn’t something that I had personally experienced.

But by the time I talked with my mom, cancer had already affected my family. She hadn’t called because she had been rushed into emergency surgery. Mom had been so ill – deathly sick, really – that she had gone to the hospital for what she had thought was appendicitis. She woke up to learn that she had “stage four” – very developed – colon cancer. A tumour had formed, and they had to remove it, immediately.

She didn’t tell me during the weekend because she wanted me to focus on my matches. We talked for a few minutes. She told me about her upcoming chemotherapy and her brutal path ahead.

I hung up, and I bawled. I sat there on my dorm room bed, with my Carolina Panthers poster on the cement wall, and cried and cried and cried. My mind was blank.

Less than six weeks earlier, I had been at home, celebrating Christmas with my family. Everyone was healthy, everything was perfect. Now I thought I was going to lose my mom.

***

I had actually wanted to get away from my parents. When I was deciding which college to attend, I picked Georgia because, No. 1, it was the right place for me and the tennis program was – and remains – incredible, but also because the university was perfectly located.

I wanted to leave North Carolina, where I had grown up, but I didn’t want to leave the South. The University of Georgia, about four hours away from my parents’ home in Greensboro, North Carolina, was the best of everything: easy enough to drive home to if I needed to but far enough away that my parents couldn’t come visit every weekend. Funny, isn’t it?

Because as I drove home on 106 North and then I-85 North, speeding past forests coming to life and two-stoplight towns in the South, I wanted to be nowhere else but home, in Greensboro, with my family.

We had shared so many ridiculous times at home. I remember my two older brothers – Nathan and Jordan – and I would eat so much food that my parents eventually bought a second refrigerator and put it in the laundry room. But we were eating that food so rapidly as well that my mom put a combination lock on the extra fridge.

My brothers and I, however, were smart kids. One time, one of us slyly peered over Mom’s shoulder as she entered the combination, and we again had reins to both refrigerators, until she noticed the attrition and changed the lock.

We ate so much, a cheeseburger counted as a snack. But we were good eaters, too: Every year my mom would plant a huge vegetable garden in the backyard, and we’d devour carrots and tomatoes.

We got into our share of trouble as well. One time, when I was maybe 7 or 8, my oldest brother Nathan took a “U” bicycle lock, shoved my head through it and locked me to his brass bed post. He left me there for a few hours until my mom came home and found me.

She was also the person waiting for me after Nathan would make me walk the three miles from the tennis courts to our house after I’d beaten him. He’d get so mad, he’d just take off – and this was before cell phones, so I couldn’t call or text someone for a ride.

But I knew this trip home would be a lot different. My usual road-trip music – CDs of The Allman Brothers Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doobie Brothers – wouldn’t cut it; I spent most of the next four hours on the phone, talking with family.

***

Mom had six months of chemotherapy waiting for her. On Monday through Wednesday, she’d sit for hours with a tube connected to her as the medicine seeped into her veins. Every other week, she’d go back.

But she never went alone. Someone – either myself, my dad, my aunt or uncle, or my brothers – would go with her, holding her hand or just trying to talk to her about anything else.

She’d feel OK for the first day or two after a session, but then she’d feel awful for days. Nauseated. Vomiting. She didn’t want to leave her bed. I’d call and ask how she was doing, “Oh, I’m fine,” she’d say. But then, later, I’d talk with my dad, who would tell me the truth.

My first trip back, right after I heard the news, I stayed for about a week, but then I returned to Georgia. I hated leaving my family, but, to be honest, it was easy to go back and keep playing tennis.

That was the one thing my mom wanted me to do – to keep playing – and because of that, I felt like, in some small way, I was able to do something for her.

She was right there with me, too: Mom came to every home tennis match that spring. She’d go to chemotherapy in the beginning of the week, drive down with my dad on Friday and, in between sleeping all weekend, she’d watch tennis.

I went home every couple of weeks during that spring season. Usually I headed back on a Monday, after a weekend of matches, and I’d come back to Athens on Wednesday. My coach, Manny Diaz, and my professors were so understanding. The tennis team secretary, who knew about my mom’s health, even baked me a cake on my birthday, 26 April.

***

The six months of chemotherapy had removed the cancer. Mom was in the clear, so we thought.

But she still came in for checkups so they could test her blood, and every time we learned she was OK, until October 2007, when doctors noticed something abnormal in her blood. The cancer had returned.

This time, however, we took her to the University of North Carolina Lineberger in Chapel Hill, and they started treating it even more aggressively. Doctors there attacked it with 28 radiation treatments and constant chemotherapy. For about six weeks, Mom carried around a chemotherapy bag so that the drugs could constantly be infused in her.

It worked. The tumour shrunk, and they surgically removed it. The rounds of checkups began again, but this time, they happened less frequently and less frequently until, finally, my mom didn’t have to go back at all.

She and my dad could come watch me play whenever they wanted, and they have. They’ve seen me in Indian Wells, Miami, New York, Cincinnati, Winston-Salem and Atlanta. Anywhere they can drive, they usually go.

During my 12-year ATP World Tour career, I’ve been lucky enough to play a lot of intense matches. But I’ve never experienced anything like the pain my mom had to endure.

What I felt when it was 68-68 against Nicolas Mahut at 2010 Wimbledon? Doesn’t compare. The exhaustion I had during the first set of the Miami Open final against Alexander Zverev, before I won my first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title? Not even close.

My mom is also why we’ve raised more than $200,000 for UNC Lineberger during charity exhibitions. This year we’re raffling off a chance to come to Wimbledon, with proceeds benefiting the hospital, where the doctors saved my mom’s life and save lives every day.

When I think about whining about the heat or about what time I’m scheduled to play, one thought about the courage Mom has shown over the years places everything in perspective.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I play a game for a living, and, whether she’s at home or in the stands, I have the support of my mom.

– as told to Jonathon Braden

The first quarter of the year is in the books. Here are five fresh faces who are enjoying a fast start to the 2018 season that you need to keep an eye on in the coming months.

This Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis focuses on players ranked in the Top 10 in specific serve and return categories whom you might not expect to be ranked that high.

1. Pierre-Hugues Herbert
No. 1 – Break Points Saved
No. 1 – Break Points Converted

The Frenchman, currently No. 80 in the ATP Rankings, is 10-8 on the season, including a solid run to the Round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Interestingly, he is 4-2 on the year against fellow Frenchmen, and has saved 72.36 per cent (89/123) of break points he has faced when serving. Amazingly, he also leads the Tour in 2018 in the other break point metric – break points converted when receiving. Herbert has converted 51.47 per cent (35/68) of break point opportunities in the first quarter of 2018.

2. Alex de Minaur
No. 5 – Second-Serve Points Won

The 19-year-old #NextGenATP Aussie has won an impressive 55 per cent (192/349) of his second-serve points through 14 matches (8-6) so far this year. He currently is at his career-best ATP Ranking of No. 114, primarily off the back of reaching the semi-finals of the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp and the final of the Sydney International in January, a run that included six victories over Top 50 opponents.

3. Nicolas Jarry
No. 9 – Service Games Won

The 22-year-old Chilean went 14-7 in the first quarter, reaching the finals of the Brasil Open, the semis of the Rio Open presented by Claro, and the quarter-finals of the Ecuador Open. Jarry turned 22 at the end of last year, and his 6’6” frame has helped him win 86.21 per cent (209/241) of his service games so far in 2018. Jarry started the year ranked No. 113, and has shot up to World No. 64 after the first three months.

4. Andrey Rublev
No. 1 – Second-Serve Return Points Won

The #NextGenATP Russian leads the Tour in this critical metric, winning 55.78 per cent (328/588) of second-serve points so far this season. The 20-year-old is ranked second in Return Games Won, winning 30.95 per cent (65/210). Rublev started 2018 on a tear, reaching the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, and the Australian Open third round.

5. Kevin Anderson
No 1 – Aces hit

Anderson typically trails players such as Ivo Karlovic, John Isner and Milos Raonic in the aces department. Not so this year. Anderson has stuck 373 aces so far in 22 matches to be almost 100 aces ahead of Karlovic (281). His favorite target is down the T, with 124 struck there in both Deuce and Ad courts, and 99 hit out wide.

Anderson: 2018 Ace Direction

• Deuce Court Wide = 57

• Deuce Court T = 68

• Ad Court Wide = 31

• Ad Court T = 56

Gilles Simon emerged victorious in a battle of 2018 ATP World Tour titlists at the Grand Prix Hassan II on Wednesday.

The Tata Open Maharashtra champion overcame surprise Ecuador Open winner Roberto Carballes Baena 7-5, 6-1 in one hour and 49 minutes to book his place in the quarter-finals. The French veteran won 66 per cent of points behind his first serve and will next meet 2014 champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or fourth seed Richard Gasquet.

Morocco’s Lamine Ouahab produced a huge shock to open the day on Court Central, coming from a set down to defeat World No. 34 Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6, 6-0, 7-6(3). Ouahab, competing in his first main draw match on the ATP World Tour in two years, won 69 per cent of points behind his first serve and broke last year’s finalist (l. to Coric) on four occasions to seal the one-hour, 34-minute victory in a decisive final-set tie-break. The World No. 617 will next face Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, for a place in the quarter-finals.

“I was quite tense at the beginning,” admitted Ouahab. “This is my only chance to play an ATP World Tour 250-level event and it means a lot to me with a lot at stake.

“After a while I relaxed and focused on playing my game. That’s when I started playing better. I love playing at home and the support from the crowd is great. It helped a lot, especially in the final set.”

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Qualifier Alexey Vatutin produced one of the upsets of the day to beat top seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(4), 6-2. The Russian, competing in his first ATP World Tour event, backed up his surprise win over Jan-Lennard Struff in style, taking just under two hours to knock the 2012 finalist out of the tournament.

Vatutin broke the World No. 23 on five occasions and will meet Pablo Andujar for a place in the semi-finals. Andujar, who recently won the Ferrero Challenger Open in Alicante, dropped just two games to advance, beating Andrea Arnaboldi 6-0, 6-2.

There was also success for Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, who scored an impressive comeback win over Marton Fucsovics 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. The wild card, who reached the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semi-finals (l. to Bautista Agut) in February, upset the Hungarian No. 1 in two hours and seven minutes to book a second-round meeting against No. 8 seed Mischa Zverev.

Radu Albot also followed the trend of the day in Marrakech, recovering from losing a one-sided first-set to win 12 of the next 15 games and beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 1-6, 6-3, 6-0. The Moldovan had lost all four previous sets played against the World No. 62, but found notable success behind his second serve (22/34) on the Moroccan clay to earn his place in a second-round clash with second seed Kyle Edmund.

Did You Know?
Ouahab reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II in 2015, when the event was played in Casablanca, defeating Robin Haase and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez before falling to Daniel Gimeno-Traver.