Few ATP players regularly attack the net these days, according to Pete Sampras, the former No. 1 who won 14 Grand Slams and approached to the net frequently, especially off his first serve.
“Roger Federer] moves the way I did, and Grigor Dimitrov has a good, all-round court game,” [he told the *Vancouver Sun*. “Both stay back [on the baseline] more than I did. I was a natural serve-and-volleyer. Those guys are pretty much extinct today.”
Sampras added that Canada’s Milos Raonic has improved and is “knocking on the door to win a major.” The 24-year-old reached the semifinals of Wimbledon last year and the quarterfinals of the 2015 Australian Open, two of his best Grand Slam peformances.
“He’s getting close,” Sampras said. “He has the monster serve, he’s very competitive and he moves well for a big man. If he has a fault, it’s trying to go for the big shot, when it’s not there. He needs to find his rhythm out there, when he’s not hitting the ball great, knowing how to throttle it back a touch. That should come with more experience.”