However, the fact that Pete had made the finals was the real miracle. The greatest moments in sports are when an athlete's spirit drives him or her beyond all physical expectations. Of course, we have had Kerri Strug rammed down our throats since the Olympics.
That was a glorious moment, but I'll take Pete's moment any day.
In case you missed it, Pete played a man named Alex Corretja in the quarterfinals. Corretja isn't exactly a household name, but he just happened to play the best match of his life. Corretja went up two sets to one behind the strength of a rocketing forehand. Pete battled through the draining heat to win the fourth set and then the match.
In a nutshell, Pete had nothing left. He was dehydrated and having stomach problems. The television audience could see the indigestion welling up as the set wore on. Sampras was supporting himself on his racket, slouching even more than usual. However, Pete hung tough and Corretja could not break serve. This forced a fifth-set tiebreaker.
Pete now looked green, much like the court surface. There was no doubt that he was in serious trouble. At 1-1 in the tiebreaker, Pete prepared to serve. Then he backed off, and through the magic of television, we got to watch him dry-heave a couple times before finally throwing up on the court.
As one of the ball boys cleaned up the yak, the chair umpire gave Pete a delay of game warning. There is no sympathy in tennis for booting during a match.
Pete then stepped up to the baseline and threw in a puff-ball serve with no juice on it. When he won the point, it became a legendary moment. Simply winning a point after something like that is huge. It was not over.
Serving at 6-7 down--a match point against him--Sampras serve-and-volleyed, a surprising strategy for someone barely mobile. When Pete stretched impossibly far to volley a cross-court passing shot from Corretja for a winner, the place erupted.
As I watched Pete lean heavily on his racket, I was sure he was done. There was no physical way for him to recover. When his first serve on the next point was hit with no speed by a man who looked barely able to lift a racket, there was little doubt.
The serve landed out, which on the one hand did not allow Corretja to hit it for an easy winner, and prolonged the match which was now difficult to watch Pete looked so bad.
Then Pete did something unbelievable. He cracked a second-serve ace wide to the deuce court to set up a match point. Boston Globe sportswriter and general tennis guru Bud Collins described it as the single greatest swing of a tennis racket he had ever seen. It was one of those moments in sports that brings you out of your seat, no matter where you are or when you see it.
Sampras' victory was what sports is about; we watch games in hope for a moment like this, to see someone or some team defy everything that stands in its way. Muhammed Ali defeating George Foreman. Team USA's "Miracle on Ice." Dare I say, Kerri Strug.
Everyone has heard the saying before: sports is like life. Many people laugh at this as ludicrous, but I believe it.
When someone performs like Pete Sampras did at the U.S. Open, it is not about what a great athlete can do, but about what a person can achieve when he or she wants to. This makes sport, at any level, the glorious thing that it is.