Never say never but don’t hold your breath. Three recent exhibitions in Asia involving Roger Federer and Pete Sampras have undoubtedly left local tennis fans hoping the legendary two-some comes here.
Jack Larson, vice president and general manager of the Xcel Energy Center, is aware of the matches between Federer and Sampras but is not pursuing the two at this time for St. Paul. Xcel has been the site of past tennis exhibitions but didn’t have an exhibition last year or in 2007.
At times this has been an impressive tennis market. The local fandom, including our Scandinavian base, turned out in large numbers to watch Bjorn Borg at the old Met Center. Even before that the building was the site of a World Team Tennis record crowd that watched the Minnesota Buckskins against Billie Jean King and the Philadelphia Freedom.
Minnesota tennis legend David Wheaton, who once was ranked No. 12 in the world, shares the hope and enthusiasm that Federer and Sampras will play in Minnesota. “I think it would be huge if that kind of match were here, a novelty,” he told Sports Headliners.
Wheaton said the two players “are the best of the modern era since 1972.” Arguably they are the two greatest of all-time. Wheaton said if Federer finally wins the French Open or exceeds Sampras’ record total of 14 Grand Slam wins, then the 26-year-old Swiss native will deserve to be acclaimed as even a better player than Sampras.
Wheaton is surprised that Federer participated in the three exhibitions against the 36-year-old Sampras who retired from tour competition in 2003. While it’s great for stirring interest in tennis, Federer doesn’t have much to gain by playing his older rival. “Federer is the kind of guy, though, that doesn’t care that much about his legacy,” Wheaton said.
Sampras won one of the three matches and Wheaton said the exhibition results don’t prove who is best. He said Sampras isn’t good enough to be a top five player today but with months of preparation for the exhibitions he can be competitive with Federer.
Meanwhile, the local section of the United States Tennis Association is discontinuing the annual women’s professional circuit tournament that was held in the winter for seven years. The commitment in resources and staff time to support the event became too much for the Northern Section to be comfortable with, according to USTA sources.
So if you need a pro tennis fix, circle March 10 on your calendar. Wheaton reports that Federer and Sampras will play an exhibition in New York’s Madison Square Garden on that date.