did rafter or sampras retire when they still had a good chance to win a slam.

[josofo]

rafter last year he made semis of austrailian losing to agassi in 5. the finals of wimbledon losing 9-7 in the 5th and 2 master series finals losing to guga and andrei pavel.

he went 8-10 vs the top 10 in 01 (and a 2-0 record vs roger federer)

pete didn't do much in 2002 he lost a tough 4 setter to safin in Australia but he did win the last tournament he played the US OPEN.

the o3 winners of hardcourt and grass slams were. agassi (sampras a slight favorite, rafter a bit of an underdog)
federer (pete of course lost the close 5 setter, rafter was 3-0)
roddick (rafter never played, pete beat him at straights in his 02 us open win).

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Rafter was injured. Sampras was tired.

 

[borg number one]

I'd say yes as to Sampras. I think he still had more great matches left, if he chose to keep going.

 

[90's Clay]

Sampras had another slam or two left in him physically (As he showed at the USO in 2002).. Mentally was a different question. If he still had a slam record to chase Im sure he would have kept going even after 2002. But no one at the time was in the vicinity of what he had achieved overall so it became a matter of mentally motivating himself. Which he lost quite a bit of motivation after 2000 Wimbledon

 

[andreh]

I think Rafter would've had a few more in him if he had been fit to play. I believe he was basically forced to retire due to injury.