By Mike McIntyre

More than seven years since their last meeting, American tennis legends Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras renewed their storied rivalry on Sunday in Macau. Okay, so it's not exactly Flushing Meadows, but many have still been quietly anticipating this event for some time now. Anyone who grew up watching these two icons battle it out over the years can appreciate what these two meant to the sport of tennis. Theirs was arguably the greatest American tennis rivalry of all time, although some might say it was preceded by the equally compelling McEnroe vs Connors. Either way, getting these two back on a tennis court together was long overdue.

As happened more often than not in the past, Sampras emerged victorious with a 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 win. The final set was a super tie-break - the first to ten points, winning by two. During their professional careers on the ATP tour, Sampras managed a 20-14 head-to-head record against Agassi. Between them they had an astounding 22 Grand Slam titles.

On Sunday, Agassi took the first set and looked to be the fresher of the two in the early stages of the match.

“Somehow when you see Pete, it all comes back to you pretty quickly,” Agassi said. “I just go, ‘Well, I don’t really have much of a choice here.’ It’s just nice to be so familiar with somebody’s game.”

Sampras came back and took the second set, setting the stage for the decisive tie-break in the third. As he did so many times during his illustrious career, Sampras closed out the match with an ace.

“Andre just hits the ball so cleanly, even after being retired for three years. The pace of his shots was very heavy,” Sampras said.

Over 15,000 spectators enjoyed the match at the lavish Venetian Macau, a hotel and casino resort located in one of China's richest cities. We can only hope that this great match-up can be viewed again in the near future.