Sampras had not won a tournament in more than two years.

ONLY a foolish man would count out even an aging Pete Sampras.

Much of the tennis world, then, must be feeling pretty foolish now because few gave arguably the greatest player of all time a chance of winning the US Open.

Triumph he did, though, and in glorious fashion with a 6-3 6-4 5-7 6-4 over Andre Agassi.