Pete Sampras made no secret about how he felt about his performance against Andre Agassi in the 1999 Wimbledon final. He suggested at a subsequent interview that he had “played the perfect tennis match” on his way to a dominant 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 victory.

You could well argue that the seven-time champion was at the peak of his career. So what better example than to chart the data of this extraordinary performance where he defeated one of the greatest returner in the game in straight sets.

The results are somewhat startling and go against the unwritten rule of serving, especially regarding second serves, so let’s begin there.

As we know, one of Pete’s main strengths was his serve which was notoriously tough to break and on this occasion, the mighty returning machine Agassi didn’t manage it once. One of the main reasons being was that Pete’s average first serve percentage for the three sets was 85.7%. In sets 2 and 3 he didn’t face one break point.

49% of all Pete’s serves whether they be first or second serves were down the T. This is a substantial percentage when you consider the other serve options. He had a plan which we will come to shortly.

Now this is surprising.

Notwithstanding that we as players are told to direct our second serves for the most part to the backhand side with a kick serve etc. and we are not talking about a low ranked pro or recreational player, we are talking about a serve returning legend with one of the best forehands in history. You can tell by the placement that these serves were slice serves. Only a very small handful of second serves were directed into the body.

We can only make an educated guess as to why Pete targeted the T but upon observation the reason becomes clear. The reasoning is the same as the doubles tandem or “I” formation with the server serving down the middle. The server’s partner is directly behind the ball and in line of a central return. In other words, the returner is not being presented with any angles to work off and the returner has no option but to hit straight at the net player.

In the case of the Agassi Sampras match, Andre was presented with very few passing shot opportunities and he was drawn to hit his return straight at the advancing Sampras. Andre’s best hope was to hit at Pete’s feet to force him to play defensive volleys. But such was the pace and accuracy of Pete’s T serves that made this tough to do on this given day.

You will also note the absence of kick serves especially on the second serve. We can only surmise that Pete didn’t want to give Andre any ball that sat up to be crushed by the Las Vegan. Pete even served second serves slice out wide from the deuce court.

There were only two games in the first set where Pete’s serve was threatened. In the first such game he was 0 -40 down. Then came the only real break in his pattern.

0-40 he served an ace out wide to backhand from the advantage court

15-40 he served an unreturned T serve to backhand from the deuce court (normal service)

30-40 he served an ace out wide to backhand from the advantage court

40-40 he served an ace out wide to forehand from the deuce court

Advantage he served a second serve ace slice down the T to forehand from the advantage court

Firstly, a huge break in pattern. Ordinarily you wouldn’t think of anything strange about a server hitting to backhand out wide from deuce court, after all this is a favourite of Roger Federer but when you consider Pete’s serving patterns up to this point and his pattern subsequent to this game where normal T service (excuse the pun) was resumed; you must say that Pete reversed his pattern when he was under pressure.

And what about that slice second serve ace to Andre’s weapon forehand? To my mind this is not only supreme confidence in your serving ability no matter who the opponent was but also a very clever mind to execute such a pattern change. I also believe that Pete was making a statement stating that even though there was a little pressure on his serve he was saying “no worries, I’ve got this covered”.

In their 2002 U.S Open final encounter Pete again served the vast majority to the T on both sides but this time with a slightly larger percentage of wide serves. But again, he surprisingly hit many second serves either out wide to forehand on deuce court and down the T on the advantage court. Every now and then Pete would sting a few body serves at Andre on his second serve.

Ok, so we’ve covered the bases for Pete Sampras’ service placement so what about the speed? Pete’s flat average serve speed was 121mph and very occasionally he could crank it up to 130mph plus. But it was Pete’s second serve speed that was the main weapon and distinctive in as much that he rarely hit a kick serve out wide, more so into the body and his use of the slice serve for his second serve which was an average of 109mph and when you combine this with his pin point accuracy of placing the serves close to the line you have a very deadly weapon indeed!

We all know that winning matches is not just about big serves alone, even Pete’s serve was not the biggest but just like Federer who copied Sampras in many ways, I believe them to be the best servers due to their pinpoint accuracy.

He really went after Andre’s second serve by standing well inside the baseline, inside no-man’s land. He also tried to put Andre off by jiggling around as Agassi was preparing to serve. All in the name of sportsmanship but to be honest Pete just ended up putting himself off when he horsed around.

What did work very well was his hooked forehand down the line return when Agassi served down the T to the advantage court. Andre had to then move to his right to hit a stretched forehand to Pete’s backhand who then hit effortlessly cross court for a winner.

Also, when Sampras returned Agassi’s second serve to his backhand (down the T) on the deuce court Pete would enjoy hitting a topspin backhand down the line to Andre’s backhand and approaching (hit and charge) which was very effective in the game which Sampras broke Andre.

When Pete couldn’t get into the net, he was happy to trade from the back of the court with any baseliner. Although his backhand for the most part would be struck cross court corner or centre, he was very capable of hitting both deadly cross court short angles and ripping down the line winners now and again.

But his main tour de force was his forehand and especially when he was on the run and opponents believed he was under pressure. Time and time again he would hook this missile cross court short angle for winner after winner or alternatively he would hit his specialty; the down the line banana forehand where he would curve the ball back into court from outside the tramlines which would look glorious, especially when passing a helpless opponent who dared venture forward!