Sweet Pete!
Pete Sampras, besides having arguably the best and most effective serve in the history of the game (Roddick, eat your heart out) also ranks right up there with the absolute best volleyers in the history of the game...
When he was younger he also possessed a devastating ground game, especially his spectacular running forehand...
His topspin backhand was more effective when he was younger, but deteriorated as he got older especially when defending on slower surfaces..(more on this later).
Of most importance, though, is that he had the common sense to know where his strengths lied and as he got older, that he'd best not fart around too long in the backcourt trading groundstrokes ad nauseum...
I really, really miss the s/v players and imo the slowing down of virtually ALL the surfaces ( especially Wimbledon) has as at least as much, if not more, to do with the decline of these types of players than just the racquet technology...
Case in point; poor Tim Henman, besides losing to some of the best s/v players of all time, had to compete under enormous pressure from the Brits even as they seemed to throw every conceivable object in his path, what with slowing down the courts for the clay courters and even using heavier,flatter balls...
Had the tennis establishment not succumbed to public pressure that s/v tennis was "too fast" and "boring", I wonder if we would be having all these conversations now about Nadal's baseline bashing on all surfaces (including Wimbledon).
Federer would've been able to adapt, after all, besides being an "all courter", he actually DID beat "The Sweet One" on the hallowed faster courts of Wimbledon by serving & volleying...
After the endless, but nonetheless entertaining rallies of the red clay, I always looked forward to the shorter, more violent, but no less elegant, tactics of grass court play, the "crack" of the serves and 1st volleys echoing throughout the Wimbledon Stadium...(sigh)
If variety is the "spice of life" it was truly the best of times...

p.s. Leena, whatever did happen to Elena Bovina? I seem to have lost track of her...