TENNIS
PETE SAMPRAS
How could the player who has won more men’s major titles than anyone else in history be under-appreciated? It’s all about style points and those may have been the only ones Pete Sampras ever lost. He wore your basic white outfits, even as his friend and rival Andre Agassi joined the colorful fashion craze. Someone always had a harder serve, but no one had better ground strokes. But Sampras didn’t grunt as he smashed the ball, didn’t argue with officials, wear a headband or give out great quotes to the international press corps. John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors were louder, and Bjorn Borg was a suitable icy rival to those hot-tempered Americans. Sampras, meanwhile, just won, time after time, with almost monotonous regularity. He’s now the perfect spokesman for Rolex watches.
Honorable Mention:
Ivan Lendl: He didn’t rush the net, came from Czechoslovakia in the Iron Curtain days, was considered a grump but was No. 1 in the world for most of the late 1980s.
Lindsay Davenport: She has earned the No. 1 ranking but never the status or popularity of the flamboyant Williams sisters nor the latest heartthrob, Maria Sharapova.
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