Pete Sampras was born on 12 August 1971 in Washington, D.C., the third of four children of Sammy and Georgia Sampras. In 1978, when he was seven, the family moved to Palos Verdes, California, where the warmer climate let him play for most of the year. At the Jack Kramer Club he was spotted by Peter Fischer, a paediatrician and tennis enthusiast who coached him until 1989. Fischer changed his two-handed backhand to a one-handed one, with the aim of preparing him to win Wimbledon.
He turned professional in 1988, and in 1990, a relatively unknown 19-year-old, he won the US Open, beating Andre Agassi in the final. In 1991 he won the first of his five season-ending championships. In 1992 he began working with Tim Gullikson, who collapsed during the 1995 Australian Open and later died of brain cancer; Paul Annacone took over as coach.
The 1990s were his decade. He won Wimbledon seven times, in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, the last of them taking him past Roy Emerson's record of 12 major singles titles. He also won two Australian Opens and five US Opens. He was ranked No. 1 for 286 weeks and finished six years in a row, 1993 to 1998, as year-end No. 1, a record. The clay of the French Open was the one major he never won.
His rivalry with Agassi framed his career: he beat him in his first major final, at the 1990 US Open, and their 2001 US Open quarterfinal, which Sampras won in four tiebreaks, is remembered as their finest match. In 2002, without a major title for two years, he won the US Open once more, beating Agassi in the final. It was the last match he ever played. He announced his retirement officially the following summer, with 14 major singles titles and 64 singles titles in all.