Federer beats Sampras in exhibition match

Updated 11.03 Tue Mar 11 2008

Keywords: pete sampras, roger federer, tennis, sport

Pete Sampras came close to beating Roger Federer in their latest exhibition match in New York.

Sampras won the second set of the match on a tie-break and he forced another tie-break in the final set but lost 6-3 6-7 7-6.

"All of a sudden I was down and I thought that was it" - Roger Federer

Last year, Federer beat Sampras 2-1 in a three-match series of exhibition matches and he was forced to dig deep to win their latest match.

Federer said: "I thought I really played well in the first set. I thought in the second set Pete really had some chances early on.

"I struggled a little bit but because I was serving first he had the pressure for a couple of games before the tie-breaker and he served exceptionally well there and there wasn't much I could do really.

"In the third set I thought I had everything under control and he starts to make returns. I didn't have much rhythm and all of a sudden I was down and I thought that was it but like Pete said I hit some great shots when I needed to."

Federer's already suffered two surprise defeats this year against Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and to Andy Murray in the first round in Dubai.

There have been suggestions that Federer's reign as world number one could be coming to an end, but Federer revealed that he's been ill in recent weeks.

Sampras said: "I pushed as hard as I could tonight. That's why he's the best player in the world. He can come up with some serves and some passes which are incredible.

"Sure I'm a little disappointed. I had the match on my racket and he came up with some great passing shots and all credit to him."