On This Day: Sampras completes mad sprint for file sixth straight year-end No. 1 end

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On This Day: Sampras completes mad sprint for file sixth straight year-end No. 1 end

American’s battle with Marcelo Rios for No. 1 got here right down to season finale

November 26, 2025

When Pete Sampras received his final skilled match, beating Andre Agassi within the 2002 US Open remaining, he earned a record-extending 14th Grand Slam title and tied Jimmy Connors’ file of 5 US Open males’s singles crowns. The American additionally completed his profession having spent 286 weeks at No. 1 within the PIF ATP Rankings.

These marks appeared insurmountable on the time, however all three information had been finally matched or damaged by the Huge 3. Nonetheless, there may be a minimum of one Sampras file that has remained untouchable: His six consecutive year-end No. 1 finishes from 1993-98. Roger Federer achieved the feat 4 years in a row (2004-07) and Novak Djokovic did it in back-to-back years on three events, whereas Rafael Nadal by no means completed No. 1 in consecutive seasons.

“It’s an final achievement. It can in all probability by no means be damaged,” Sampras stated of the milestone, which was confirmed on 26 November 1998. “I’m attempting to remain humble by means of all this, however the file speaks for itself. It’s just a little overwhelming.”

Throughout Sampras’ six-year reign, he was knocked off the summit six completely different occasions and repeatedly wrestled his means again to the highest of the PIF ATP Rankings.

He was by no means pushed nearer for the year-end honours than in 1998, when Marcelo Rios twice unseated him at No. 1 for a mixed six weeks. Following a semi-final defeat to eventual champion Patrick Rafter on the US Open, Sampras held a slender lead over the Chilean atop the PIF ATP Rankings. The ultimate two months of the ATP Tour season would decide whether or not Sampras may break Connors’ file of 5 straight year-end No. 1 finishes.

In an all-out bid to carry off Rios, Sampras competed in seven ATP Tour occasions throughout October and November. Rios performed six in his personal mad sprint for the end line.

“It wasn’t enjoyable, I will be sincere with you,” Sampras stated. “I had one probability to interrupt this file, this all-time file of six years in a row. I used to be like, ‘Alright, if I’ll should be over right here [in Europe] for an additional three or 4 weeks, I am going to do it.’ And I did it. 

“It felt nice, nevertheless it undoubtedly took so much out of me emotionally, even the subsequent few years. It’s totally laborious to remain No. 1, and to do it six years in a row… For me in my profession, I look again at that — and I’ve received quite a lot of majors and I’ve finished some nice issues — however staying No. 1 all these years I believe was my greatest achievement, simply to be dominant. And to not simply keep No. 1 for six months or yr, however to actually cement that.”

Sampras’ 1998 run-in started with a first-round defeat in Basel earlier than he crucially claimed his fourth title of the season the next week as a late wild card in Vienna, simply as Rios lifted a trophy of his personal in Singapore. (Sampras’ spot in Vienna got here courtesy of Boris Becker, who supplied his personal wild card to the American.) Each males traveled to Lyon subsequent however pulled out of the event as their our bodies broke down; Sampras withdrew forward of the quarter-finals with a again downside earlier than Rios retired in his semi-final match in opposition to Tommy Haas.

Subsequent up had been two ATP Masters 1000s in Stuttgart and Paris. Whereas Rios reached the quarter-finals at each, Sampras reached the semis and the ultimate on the respective tournaments, padding his lead within the PIF ATP Rankings.

However Sampras stalled in Stockholm, the place the psychological toll of his late-season push was evident. After dropping a first-set tie-break in an eventual three-set defeat to World No. 29 Jason Stoltenberg, the sometimes stoic American smashed his racquet in a uncommon outburst. 

“The European circuit within the fall isn’t any picnic, even at the perfect of occasions,” Sampras wrote in his autobiography, “A Champion’s Thoughts”. “It’s chilly, it will get darkish early, and also you’re taking part in night time matches in huge arenas below synthetic lights. On the finish of the lengthy, laborious Grand Slam season, that atmosphere can go away you feeling such as you’re residing in some unusual, parallel universe.”

Nonetheless, the American’s opening-round exit in Stockholm had a silver lining: It afforded him two weeks off earlier than the ATP World Tour Championships (now the Nitto ATP Finals), the place year-end No. 1 honors could be determined.

Sampras entered the Hanover season finale with a slim lead of 33 factors within the PIF ATP Rankings, which means he wanted to match or higher Rios’ whole on the year-end showcase to finish his No. 1 mission. With the strain ratcheted up, Sampras rediscovered his peak type within the group stage, posting a 3-0 file and dropping simply 15 video games in six units in opposition to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Carlos Moya and Karol Kucera.

Whereas the American was overwhelmed by eventual champion Alex Corretja within the semis — two years after Sampras’ epic 1996 US Open quarter-final win in opposition to the Spaniard, throughout which he famously threw up on the courtroom — he had secured year-end No. 1 honours lengthy earlier than the knockout rounds. Rios, after dropping to Tim Henman in his opening round-robin match, was compelled to withdraw from the occasion with a again harm, confirming Sampras as No. 1. He was consuming pasta in his lodge when he heard the information.

Sampras’ six consecutive year-end No. 1 finishes stay a PIF ATP Rankings file. Solely Sampras and Djokovic, who has earned year-end No. 1 honours eight occasions, have achieved the feat greater than 5 occasions in whole.