Something to Remember...

Attending the Sampras/Federer exhibition match at Madison Square Garden was something truly very special. Beyond the name of the venue bearing my daughter's name, it was a historic match.

Being a teaching tennis professional having played exhibitions myself I know that the biggest driver behind performance is pride. Granted even though Federer was paid $1M to play and Sampras $200k to play does not diminish the magnitude of the event.

The big debate is whether or not the match result was pre-planned. I can tell you that the outcome was not scripted as they both were genuinely nervous in the beginning at the spectacle of the event and that it just came down to the basics - Federer ended up winning the bigger points at the end. I know that Sampras wanted to win for his US crowd of 19,690 as evidenced by the genuine disappointment on his face when his match point backhand passing shot landed just wide.

If it was scripted for Federer to win they would not risk Sampras going up both 5-2 in the final set and 5-2 in the breaker. They gave their best effort under the circumstances to provide tennis entertainment to millions. We should be lucky to have seen two of the best in tennis players of all time compete against each other in the closest match you will get to date of determining who the best ever is.

Tennis won that evening.