When Arthur Ashe Stadium opened its gates in 1997, it simultaneously opened a new era for the US Open. The arena, named for one of tennis’ all-time champions and grandest ambassadors, quickly established itself as the game’s greatest stage; a spectacular centerpiece for an event whose global appeal had spurred its remarkable growth. With its 23,000-plus seats, Arthur Ashe Stadium allowed more fans the chance to witness first-hand the tournament’s singular sizzle, while simultaneously affording the game’s greatest talents a fitting floorboard upon which to showcase their incredible talents. Like its host city, Arthur Ashe Stadium is unapologetically large and loud; the electricity generated within its high walls creating a wave of energy that has come to define the US Open as an event unlike any other. It is as iconic as the man for whom it is named.
In the 25 years since Arthur Ashe Stadium opened, this grand arena has hosted countless memorable moments—many of them integral pieces in constructing the US Open’s global reputation as one of the world’s most spectacular sporting events. So many great matches; so much incomparable drama; so much unforgettable magic.
Throughout the summer leading up to the 2022 US Open, USOpen.org will recount 25 of the most memorable moments from these 25 years of Arthur Ashe Stadium. Some obvious; others, less so; every one of them helped establish this unequaled arena as our game’s greatest stage.
For moment No. 14, we're fittingly celebrating Pete Sampras' 14th, and final, Grand Slam win at the 2002 US Open.
In late June 2002, Pete Sampras, who during the previous decade had won seven of eight Wimbledon championships, was relegated to Court No. 2 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Known as the “graveyard court,” it had an uncanny ability to slay top-ranked players.
Sampras, the American with an all-time-leading 13 majors to his resume, had fallen to No. 13 in the rankings and hadn’t won an ATP tour title in two years and 33 tries. Out on Court No. 2, he was playing like a has-been, inexplicably and embarrassingly losing to the 145th-ranked Swiss player, George Bastl—a journeyman who wasn’t merely unheralded, but almost completely unknown. On changeovers, a dispirited Sampras—whose on-court confidence usually flirted with arrogance—could be seen reading scraps of paper with inspirational notes scribbled by his wife, Bridgette Wilson.
Her conjugal encouragement was of little use. Sampras fell to the lucky loser Bastl, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 and was unceremoniously ushered out of Wimbledon in the second round. Sampras later called the match “the lowest moment of my career.”
Sampras seemed to be sputtering toward the end. Was retirement imminent?
Not quite. Exactly two months later, Sampras, then 31 years old and seeded No. 17, unexpectedly stormed through six rounds of the US Open and reached the final for the eighth time. There, he again faced his great rival, Andre Agassi.
After losing to Sampras in five sets in the third round, Greg Rusedski, the surly Canadian-Brit, declared Sampras “a step and a half slow.” “I’d be surprised if he wins his next match,” Rusedski said. “He’s just not the same player from the past.”
Sampras made Rusedski eat his words. To advance to the final, Sampras defeated World No. 3 Tommy Haas and future US Open champion Andy Roddick. Then, looking every bit the champion of old, Sampras blasted 33 aces and hit 84 winners to defeat the sixth-seeded Agassi in four convincing sets and capture his 14th major title—at the time, a total thought insurmountable.
It would be Sampras’s last. It would also be the last time he stepped on court as a pro. Pistol Pete, the gunslinger with a rifle of a serve, strode off the stage of Arthur Ashe Stadium and—even if he didn’t know it at the time—into the California sunset.
While it may not have been a classic Sampras-Agassi encounter—that would have been the thrilling 2001 US Open quarterfinal in which neither player broke serve and all four sets were decided in tiebreaks—it proved the perfect bookend for Sampras.
Sampras had won his first Slam at Flushing Meadows as a skinny 19-year-old, defeating the phenom Agassi, in 1990. Sampras again beat Agassi in the 1995 US Open final.
Sampras’s 2002 victory would be not only the end of his career, but the end of an era. The last all-American men's singles final at the US Open represented the end of a storied rivalry (and intriguing matchup of contrasting play and personalities) and the end of the last great era of American men’s tennis.
Agassi later told The New York Times: “You have a career that you spend playing your best tennis against one of the greats of all time, and you’re never guaranteed, even with the best of careers, to have that sort of rivalry and that sort of opposite that brings out the best in you over the years.”
Sitting with the trophy at his press conference after winning the US Open for the fifth and final time, Sampras confessed that he wasn’t sure if he had just 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 said.
