"It made Roger Federer & Andre Agassi look a lot worse" - Tennis analyst draws parallels between clutchness of Novak Djokovic & Pete Sampras

Tennis analyst Gill Gross drew a parallel between Novak Djokovic's clutch performances against Roger Federer and Pete Sampras' dominance over Andre Agassi.

Djokovic and Federer locked horns 50 times on the ATP tour, with the Serb leading 27-23 in their head-to-head. He also holds the upper hand in finals, with a 13-6 record, and at Grand Slams, with a 11-6 record.

Gill Gross remarked on the 24-time Grand Slam champion consistently outperforming the Swiss in their encounters, dating back to Federer's consecutive defeats to the Serb in 2010 and 2011 US Open semifinals.

"Early on in their rivalry, Novak saved two match points in back-to back US Open semifinals - 2010 and 2011. And that’s killer, that’s a crusher, that’s a real buildup of scar tissue. I think that set the tone," he said on the latest episode of the Monday Match Analysis podcast.

He also asserted that the World No. 1's remarkable composure during crucial moments in matches made most of his opponents look "un-clutch" in comparison.

"You put any player next to Novak and they are likely to look somewhat un-clutch. Djokovic is an outlier when it comes to clutch play," he added.

Gross drew a parallel between Djokovic's rivalry with Federer and Pete Sampras' similar dominance over Andre Agassi. Sampras boasts a 20-14 head-to-head record against the eight-time Grand Slam champion and a 4-1 winning record in Grand Slam finals.

"Something similar happened in the Sampras-Agassi rivalry. Pete had a similar clutchness. Similar thing to what Novak has. He won a lot of close matches against Andre. He got the better of that head-to-head. And the reaction was, ‘Oh Agassi’s not all that clutch, Agassi doesn’t come up big, doesn’t play well under pressure.’ I think a lot of that was that you put him next to Pete and it looks like that," he said.

Gross explained that Federer and Agassi were not lacking in clutch performance, but appeared less impressive when compared to their arch-rivals Djokovic and Sampras, who Gross described as "abnormally good."

"It’s not that Andre or Roger were subpar in this department, it’s just that they came up against rivals that were abnormally good and it made them look a lot worse in the clutch department," he added.

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Novak Djokovic: "It’s great there are more rivalries but obviously rivalries with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal particularly are right up there for me"

Novak Djokovic

In a recent interview with Sky Sports, Novak Djokovic discussed his rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz. While the Serb acknowledged that the excitement of new rivalries, he expressed a special appreciation for his longstanding rivalries with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

"I think it’s great for our sport there are more rivalries happening but obviously rivalries with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal particularly and also with Andy Murray are right up there for me," he said.

However, the 24-time Grand Slam champion also conveyed his desire to form a similarly extensive rivalry with the Spaniard.

"Carlos, I have just played him 3-4 times. Hopefully I’ll play him as many times as I played the other guys and that will mean I’ll be playing for years to come. I doubt that, let’s see how it goes," he added.

Alcaraz and the Serb are currently tied at 2-2 in their head-to-head record. The Serb emerged victorious in their most recent encounter in the 2023 Cincinnati Open final.