Aus Open Re-Lived: 1995 - The tears of Pete Sampras

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Wimbledon, Sports, Sports & Recreation

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1995, Pete Sampras was the world No.1, a five-time major winner, and the defending Australian Open champion. He was also a dominant and stoic figure, labelled by many as boring and representative of a sport in decline.

All that changed early in the fifth set of Sampras’ quarter-final match against Jim Courier when, overcome with emotion as he thought of his friend and coach Tim Gullikson, who had flown home from Melbourne with serious health problems, Sampras began to weep uncontrollably.

He somehow managed to ace his way through the tears and win the match, but it was an extraordinary moment, and one that altered the public’s perception of Sampras.

Mary Carillo, who was commentating on the match for ESPN, tells the story from her vantage point, and David remembers how he felt at the time, as a huge Sampras fan watching it all unfold on TV.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments.

*SAMPRAS BOOK*

Tennis journalist and historian Steve Flink has written the definitive book on Pete Sampras, called 'Greatness Revisited'. It was a valuable resource for our research for this show and you can buy it here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pete-Sampras-Greatness-Steve-Flink/dp/1937559947

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt Svillander. This is Mary Carillo.
0:05.3	I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm Lainey Nguet. I'm Andy Murray. This is Janik Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.
0:11.4	Hello folks and welcome along to another episode of the tennis podcast and Australian Open
0:28.3	relived. This train is pulling into the 90s station, David. Yeah, I've born for this moment.
0:35.1	You're quite literally what? Yeah, you said before we start every podcast, Catherine goes,
0:44.2	right, everybody ready? And I honestly, those were the words I was thinking. Born ready for this.
0:49.9	This is where we talk about stuff I can remember more than yesterday. We are doing 1995 today and an
0:57.6	incredibly significant match in the career and in the public perception of Pete Sampress Matt,
1:05.6	were you alive at this moment? Afraid not. No. He's not alive. I was born after this moment. Yes,
1:15.9	I'm very happy to be here, but I'm also happy to sit back, take a back seat, wine David up,
1:23.0	let him go and just hear David talk about Pete Sampress. That's what the people want.
1:28.9	Were you in Newtero? No, not even that. Not to go all the end of pays on you, but I'm a few months
1:37.1	away. No, quite a while away from being conceived. Oh. Good to know. We'll check in tomorrow
1:48.4	on the status of Matt's conception. Other quickly and familial news. My dad is now busy incubating
1:57.5	Whitaker antibodies. So update on the boat is that it will now be a guaranteed COVID-free zone,
2:06.0	or it certainly will be in 12 weeks time anyway. So something to bear in mind when we're considering
2:13.5	it is probably a new criteria for boat worthiness, I would say. Yes.
2:21.6	tennis sangren not a board. Although ironically he does have antibodies, doesn't he? But
2:28.2	unfortunately not a good personality. Doesn't meet the other criteria. No.
2:35.1	So that is it for anything current. Sit back folks close your eyes and allow David Law to take you
2:43.9	back to 1995. And that year's Australian open. We're going to set the scene for you for you first.
2:53.9	Particularly the Pete Sampress landscape coming into the Australian open 1995. At this stage,
	...

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