Match Point

The Olympic Games, the World Cup, and the World Championships are known as the three great worlds in the world. Each event can attract global attention and ignite thousands of topics. Their significance has long surpassed the competitive sports themselves, and they are also of commercial value. And a high degree of integration of urban planning.

Every competitive sport has its own top honors, and tennis is no exception.

As an individual sport, and long as an aristocratic gentleman's game, tennis was rejected professionally for a long, long time.

To put it simply, those top tournaments are all private club models, and they only allow their members—that is, non-professional players to participate; while professional players can only participate in small tournaments with professional sponsors, because the nobles refuse to allow this Sports become commercialized.

The key point is that those events with a long history, glorious tradition and strong influence all continue the "private club" model, which also makes tennis professionalization never able to be promoted.

Among them, there are four most famous top club competitions:

In 1877, the Wimbledon Club Championship started in London, England. This is a grass-court event. It was originally an internal event of a private club.

In 1881, the U.S. Men's Tennis Championships was established in New York, USA. This is a hard-court event. At first, only players from the U.S. National Tennis Association were allowed to participate.

In 1891, the French Tennis Championships officially started in Paris, France. This is a clay court event that initially only allowed members of the French Tennis Club to participate.

In 1905, Australia started the Australasian Championship in Melbourne. It was originally a grass-court event. It was not transformed into a hard-court event until 1988. The original intention of this event was to hold cultural exchanges between Australia and New Zealand.

Including the above four events, they only allow amateur players to participate.

In the earliest tennis games, amateur players and professional players were two completely different systems, with different organizations behind them, and they also prohibited players from participating in games not organized by themselves, which also slowed down the commercialization of tennis.

However, players' protests, organizational games, and interest competitions have been happening all the time. After various power confrontations and confrontations, they finally ushered in a change.

In 1968, the French Tennis Championships took the lead in making changes. They changed their name to the "French Open" and officially accepted professional players to participate.

This year, also known as the "first year of the Open", is bounded by 1968. Before that, it was the era of non-open games, and the champions of those top events were often non-professional amateur players; after that, it was the era of open games. , Professional players have officially become the main players in major competitions.

Of course, after the French Open was changed, it still ushered in a period of turmoil for several years. After the struggle for power, it was not until 1972 that it finally stabilized gradually, forming a professional tennis system that continues to this day——

ITF, the International Tennis Federation, is mainly responsible for the four Grand Slams, youth events, and national team events.

ATP, the Association of Professional Tennis Players, is mainly responsible for the organization of men's tours at all levels.

WTA, the International Women's Tennis Association, is mainly responsible for the organization of women's tours at all levels.

The three organizations are independent of each other, and there are many conflicts of interest, but they also cooperate with each other to assist the operation of the entire professional tennis world.

In today's professional tennis competition system, the highest honor is the Grand Slam (Grand--Tournaments), because the competition has the longest history, and also because the competition has the most players and the most prize money. Of course, the most important thing is that among the three major tennis organizations The points level is also the highest.

The Four Grand Slams are the four events mentioned above with a deep history: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Any player who can win a Grand Slam championship means the highest honor in his career!

If you can win the four Grand Slam honors, it is called the "Grand Slam", and if you can win the Olympic gold medal, it is the "Golden Slam".

In the era of the Open, the most legendary superstar in men's professional tennis is none other than Pete-Sampras, a player born in 1971 who won the US Open for the first time in 1990, making history The youngest men's singles champion in the world has been out of control ever since.

In Sampras's career, the number of weeks ranked first in the world, the number of ranked first in the world at the end of the year, the total prize money of professional events, etc. are all historical record holders; moreover, he has won a total of 14 The Grand Slam champion is also unique in history.

The only regret is that Sampras has never been able to conquer the French Open, lacking a Grand Slam champion and not being able to achieve the "Grand Slam" glory.

When Sampras announced his retirement on the opening day of the 2003 U.S. Open, numerous experts believed that the record of fourteen Grand Slam champions could not be broken for a long, long time.

However, in 2009, Swiss player Roger Federer first tied Sampras' record of fourteen Grand Slam titles, and then broke the record in the following year. As of 2014, his number of Grand Slam titles It has reached the seventeenth seat, and it is considered an unattainable height.

However, at this time, no one thought that after 2014, miracles are still being born~www.wuxiahere.com~History is still being created, and the two most glorious and brightest decades in men’s tennis still haven’t stopped writing myths footsteps.

Although historical records are being broken step by step by younger generations, Sampras is still one of the most influential and iconic icons in professional tennis. Until 2014 and until 2021, Sampras' name and record remain It is a part that cannot be ignored when people discuss the history of tennis.

There is no doubt that Sampras is a legend.

Today, the "Pete" who appeared beside Sofar is the legendary Pete Sampras.

Sampras has never left tennis since he retired. He can be seen in commentary seats, exhibition games, charity events and other occasions. Today, as a special guest, he came to explain the Los Angeles City Derby. The most important reason is that He has a direct connection to the Bruins —

Sampras' older sister Stella - Sampras (-Sampras) is the head coach of the Bruins women's tennis team.

He was also very concerned about the game between the Bruins and the Trojans. When he received the invitation from ESPN, he nodded and agreed without hesitation.

At this time, in the face of Sofar's question, Sampras also said bluntly, "I think the formation of the coaches of both sides has been carefully considered. We only saw the surface, but we should all know that competitive sports It has never been determined by rankings and mouths.”

Although he didn't say it explicitly, he could feel it inside and out. Sampras was actually saying that there might be surprises in this duel, and Gao Wen should not be underestimated.

Sampras turned his head to look at Sofar, and replied with a smile, "Three days ago, you just watched the Bruins game, what do you think?"

The question was thrown back again.