With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, we are opening up our US Open vault to bring you full match videos of classic encounters through the years in New York.
Join us Saturday at 4 p.m. ET for the latest #USOpenClassics on Facebook Live and Twitter. Next up in the series is a full-match live stream of the 2002 final between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
No one knew it at the time—not even Pete Sampras himself—but the 2002 US Open final was to be the last match of the American's Hall of Fame career. That may not have been the case if his career-long rival, Andre Agassi, had got the best of him that day in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
But Sampras maintained his perfect record in their US Open meetings, finalizing at 4-0 against Agassi in New York, and 20-14 overall.
Though Agassi is 17 months older than his compatriot, he continued to play for another four years, finishing his career at the 2006 US Open. The US Open men's singles champion in 1994 and 1999, Agassi reached his sixth New York final in 2005, when he was turned back by Roger Federer.
Sampras claimed his fifth US Open title, and a then-record 14th Grand Slam men's singles championship, by beating Agassi in four sets—the same length as their 2001 quarterfinal epic, which featured four tiebreaks and no breaks of serve.
After the final, when he sat down with his trophy for a press conference, Sampras was still not sure if he had played his last match.
"I'm going to have to weigh it up in the next couple months to see where I'm at. To beat a rival like Andre in a storybook ending, it might be nice to stop," he shared. "But I still want to compete, you know? I still love to play."
Watch the full #USOpenClassics match via Facebook Live and Twitter on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. For a coming attraction, view the highlights below.
