During his heydays, Pete Sampras outperformed some of the other legendary figures in the circuit in order to amass 14 singles Grand Slam titles. Given his dominant on-court performances, the American tennis veteran was considered a formidable force on the men’s tour throughout his era. The Hall of Famer’s phenomenal prowess particularly his ferocious serves was feared by many top competitors.

But then came the younger generation who caused a lot of problems for the former tennis ace according to his old adversary, Ivan Lendl’s recent disclosures. Emphasizing Sampras’ struggle against young foes, the 63-year-old shed light on the importance of evolving with time in the sport.

Ivan Lendl cites Pete Sampras’ ‘serve’ example to talk about their on-court challenges

In the podcast show, ‘Tennis with an Accent,’ the 8-time singles Grand Slam champion spoke candidly about his former colleague’s ferocious serves. Ivan Lendl opened up about how it was quite challenging for everyone on the tour to deal with  Pete Sampras’ ‘huge’ serves. He said, “I give you an example here, Pete Sampras, he came with a huge serve. And nobody was able to return it.”

However, Lendl later also brought to light his old rival’s struggles that he faced against the younger adversaries on the tour. He added, “Or 10 years later, there were many more big servers so guys could practice against it and started returning Pete serve. So it starts causing more problems for Pete. Same thing with me, I was hitting the ball really hard off the ground.”

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Just like Sampras, the former Czech–American tennis player also used to the ball really hard on the court. But things changed for Lendl when he squared off against the young players who were on the ‘top’ of the game. It further made him realize the importance of enhancing various aspects of his game.

Lendl on the importance of evolving in tennis

During the podcast show, the 63-year-old opened up about how the young players used to easily emulate some remarkable yet challenging on-court skills. Lendl said, “So they see that they see it’s possible to serve that big it’s possible to hit it that hard of the ground. And then they come to the tour and they have that.”

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Considering the same, the former tennis ace claimed that it is quite necessary for players to evolve or else they will get dethroned. Lendl added, “So if you’re not able to improve in the other parts of the game, they’re going to they’re going to overtake you.”

What do you think of the Hall of Famer’s views on the importance of evolving in the game? Let us know in the comments section.

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