Federer ’struggles’ to beat Sampras 6-3 6-7 7-6

 Please do not be fooled, if Federer wanted to beat 37 year old former player Sampras 6-2 6-2 I’m sure he could have. However for exhibition purposes in New York in front of a 15,000 sell out crowd and a one million dollar pay day Federer allowed a match to take place. Federer ended up winning the match in a third set tie break after being 5-2 down in the set. Was the match scripted? Very possibly.

This is the fourth exhibition between the current master and past master following their three match series in Asia last year and Sampras started very nervously reportedly from not being used to playing in front of big crowds any more. Having seen some highlights of the match I must say it was painful to see Federer blatently giving away points and not playing to his full potential to allow the aging Sampras a chance. He looked to be serving at half pace and jus went throught the motions particularly in the second set. However the third set tie break was certainly contested properly and both players showed nerves when the score got close. But surely playing a match like this can’t be good practice for the current world number one?