Why they rank here
Sampras retired with what was then the men's all-time record of 14 majors, and the record most likely to survive the Big Three era is still his: six consecutive year-end No.1 finishes, 1993 through 1998, a run of sustained supremacy no man has matched before or since. His seven Wimbledon titles in eight years (1993-2000) were built on the most complete serving game the sport had seen — not the fastest serve, but the best-disguised, backed by a second serve routinely rated the greatest ever and an attacking all-court game that made him nearly unbreakable on fast surfaces. He spent 286 weeks at No.1, won 64 titles, and ended his career with a perfect exit: winning the 2002 US Open, beating Agassi in the final, and never playing another match. The gap in his record — no Roland Garros, with just one semifinal there — is why he sits near the bottom of this list rather than the middle; on everything but clay, he was the standard his successors chased.
Career profile
Each bar shows how this athlete compares with the strongest in our all-time list for that metric.