Sampras and Agassi Renew Longtime Rivalry at Charity Event

March 15, 2010 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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On a positive note, Hit for Haiti 2 made a $1 million donation to Haiti, but Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi showed that the negative feelings between the longtime bitter rivals are still very much there.

The night started off with the ladies, as Lindsay Davenport and Steffi Graff lost 8-6 to Martina Navratilova and Justine Henin.

Then came the main event: Roger Federer and Pete Sampras versus Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal. Four legends on the court together seemed like a great idea, but Agassi and Sampras made a night that was supposed to be good fun for a good cause into a very awkward situation .

Things started out fine. There was a lot of good back and fourth between Agassi and Federer with both of them teasing each other, which brought laughter from the crowd. But as the night went along, Agassi made things very public and very personal in the rivalry between himself and Sampras.

It started when Agassi provoked Sampras to stop being so serious and have some more fun. Sampras decided to oblige Andre and have some fun. Sampras’s idea of fun was impersonating Agassi. He fixed his strings and imitated the pigeon walk while walking over the baseline then back. The impersonation was funny and spot on. But then Agassi decided to do his impersonation of Sampras. However,instead of Agassi mocking Pete’s tennis quirks, he instead pulls his pockets inside out and says “Tip? I don’t have any money… Oh wait! Here’s a dollar.” It didn’t end there as Sampras, clearly annoyed, served at Agassi and claimed Agassi had "made it personal." Agassi responded by saying, "It wasn’t personal because everyone knows already." This resulted in some very uncomfortable moments for everyone involved, including Federer and Nadal who seemed like they weren’t sure what to do or say to get Pete and Andre to calm down.

The whole dialogue by Agassi was a clear and pointed reference to Agassi’s autobiography, Open, where Agassi writes about an instance in which he, along with his former coach Brad Gilbert, were in the same restaurant as Sampras. Agassi and Gilbert left minutes after Sampras. Beforehand, they bet on how much Sampras would tip the valet. Gilbert thought Sampras would tip plenty considering his daily income, but when they asked the valet, they found out he only tipped him $1.

Sampras and Federer ended up winning the match 8-6, but by that point, the result was just an afterthought for all watching.

After the match, Agassi and Sampras did hug after the match and Sampras said, “You know I only have love for you.” Then when Justin Gimelstob interviewed the players, Sampras again said he has no bad feelings towards Agassi. Agassi however, had nothing to say about the incident after the match.


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Pointset
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