commonly used
Pete Sampras – The Legend of Tennis
Multiple winner of Grand Slam tournaments, for several years was the first racket of the world. The future champion was born in Washington on August 12, 1971 in a Greek family. His father, Soterios Sampras, worked as an engineer, his mother did not work, she was a housewife. Parents called son Petros. Pete’s father was a big fan of tennis and spent his free time on the court with pleasure. When the boy was 7 years old, his father began to teach him how to play tennis. The intense game sometimes ended in a swoon, because Pete has a rare disease associated with a lack of iron in the blood. However, the disease did not prevent him from making a brilliant, dizzying career as one of the most successful and famous tennis players of the 90s of the twentieth century. When Pete was 9 years old, his doctor and amateur player Pete Fisher became his coach at the request of his father. The coach was happy to work with a capable student and managed to instill in the young tennis player the style that later became Sampras’s hallmark. The style contained elements of an aggressive game with lightning fast outputs to the grid. At the age of 14, Sampras, on the advice of a trainer, changed the two-handed left punch to the famous one-handed one in the future. At major children’s tournaments, Sampras was rarely the winner, as the coach Continue reading
Rod Laver
Rod Laver, nicknamed “Rocket” was named the greatest tennis player of the twentieth century, and for good reason. He is the only player (among men and women) in the history of tennis, whose victories in majors have allowed him to become the holder of the Grand Slam in singles twice. He won the first “Grand Slam” in 1962, when he was an amateur, but the next year Rod became a professional, where in 1967 he also won the “Professional Grand Slam”.
With the beginning of the “Open Era” in 1968, Laver, like other professionals, again began to take part in the Grand Slam tournaments.
He got his second “Grand Slam” in 1969. Continue reading
Tennis Musketeers
1922 – the World Cup in Brussels ended. Huge headlines in newspapers: “There has never been anything like this before!” What happened? The sensational success of French tennis: five victories in the finals, five league titles won by representatives of one country!
In men’s singles, 21-year-old Henri Cochet defeated Spaniard Manuel de Gomar in five sets. Suzanne Lenglen literally tore the American Elizabeth Ryan – 6: 3, 6: 2. Caucher and Jean Borotra became the winners among male couples, Länglen and Raine among women, and, finally, Länglen and Caucher won the mixed title. Continue reading