ATP Tour

The passing of the torch from Sampras to Federer at Wimbledon

Wimbledon held a special place in the heart of Roger Federer long before the Swiss lifted his first title at the All England Club in 2003. A big reason for that was his fellow ATP No. 1 Club member Pete Sampras, who won the event seven times — a record Federer ultimately broke with his eight men's singles crowns on the London lawns.

"Wimbledon is special for me because of Pete Sampras," Federer said in Part 3 of ACES: The ATP No. 1 Club docuseries. "I fell in love with its tradition, its history. I used to joke that, 'Oh my god, I won Wimbledon.' I would fall to my knees and go like 'Oh my god, I won,' you know like Bjorn Borg style."

Federer would also match Borg's record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles — but not before he stopped Sampras short of achieving that very same feat.

Federer and Sampras contested just one Lexus ATP Head2Head match in their careers, but that historic 2001 showdown came in the most fitting of settings: Wimbledon's Centre Court.

Federer, 19, was making his third appearance at the grass-court major. Seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, he earned his first wins on the tournament's hallowed grounds earlier that fortnight. Top seed Sampras, nearing 30, was bidding to equal Borg's record five consecutive Wimbledon titles and extend his own record of seven titles overall.

In his first appearance on Centre Court, Federer announced himself to the sporting world with a 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 victory that ended Sampras' London dominance. While the American respected Federer's game before the match, he left with a full appreciation for the complete game he saw across the net.

"I was caught off guard with Roger when I played him that match. He was fast, he was powerful, he had all the shots," Sampras recalled in the docuseries. "I met my match in that match."

At the time, pundits and fans were quick to herald the potential significance of the result, the most prolific Wimbledon men's champion of all-time cut down by a silky-smooth emerging star. History would prove even the most sensational reports of the upset undersold its magnitude in the context of the sport.

Sampras knew he came up against something special on that day, but even the American could not have predicted what was to follow in Federer's career.

"I was getting up there [in age] and I'm thinking that was a passing of the torch, maybe," he reflected. "I remember walking off the court thinking, 'This kid's pretty special, he's a little bit different.' And he was."

Sampras retired the next season after winning the 2002 US Open. In 2003, Federer's reign at Wimbledon began. In 2004, that reign extended to the PIF ATP Rankings.

When Federer beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in the 2004 Australian Open semi-finals, he sealed his debut as World No. 1.

"I went to my knees almost thinking I made it," he recalled. "I knew that the people in the stadium didn't know it meant World No. 1 for me, but I and the team and my family knew it was.

"Massive moment when I was for the first time World No. 1, the first male Swiss to ever do it. I couldn't have been more overjoyed. Being World No. 1, this is what dreams are made of."

At the time, Sampras held the record for consecutive weeks atop the PIF ATP Rankings with 286. After being stuck on 285 weeks for more than two years, Federer finally passed Sampras for the all-time mark in 2012. He finished with 310 weeks at the summit, last holding the honour in 2018 — a record that stood until 2021, when Novak Djokovic broke it on his way to 428 weeks at No. 1.

But there is at least one No. 1 record that Sampras still holds, even after the Big Three era: his six consecutive seasons as year-end No. 1, from 1993-98.