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Andre Agassi says Roger Federer is 'a class above' Pete Sampras

Nadal, Sampras, Agassi and Federer at 2011's Hit for Haiti. (AP)

Nadal, Sampras, Agassi and Federer at 2011’s Hit for Haiti. (AP)

No sport loves a good G.O.A.T. debate like tennis. It’s a never-ending argument — who’s the best ever? Pete, Laver, Roger, Rafa or Borg?

Andre Agassi weighed in on the debate on HuffPost Live this week. Given the awkwardness between him and his contemporary, Pete Sampras, Agassi’s answer is hardly surprising. His certainty and definitiveness is.

“I think Federer is a class above, quite frankly. I mean, you’re talking about a guy who dominated pretty much on every surface, minus one guy on clay. He’s won everything. Pete was obviously off the hook on faster courts but during the clay season players wanted to play against him. It was opportunity to get a win over him, it was an opportunity to beat him. You didn’t have that luxury with Fed. He was really the world class, all-around player.”

The clay court inferiority is clearly the biggest mark against Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slams in his career, but never made it past the semifinals at the French Open. (He only made four quarterfinals appearances at Roland Garros). Of Sampras’ 64 titles, only three came on clay. Overall, Sampras won 63% of his matches on clay, compared with 77% for Federer, who made multiple French Open finals and hoisted the trophy in 2009.

But Sampras was the most dominant player of his era. Even if you shade to the Federer side, as I do, you can’t say he’s a class above Sampras … unless the discussion is about tipping, right Andre?

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