A former State tennis player and current one had an experience they won’t ever forget on Saturday when they got to pair up and play doubles with two of tennis’s all-time greats, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe.

Will Shaw, who played for the Pack before finishing his eligibility in 2006, paired up with Sampras and faced off against David Rozek, a rising senior, and McEnroe in a 10-point tiebreak.

The Sampras/Shaw duo took down the McEnroe/Rozek combo 10-8.

Shaw got the mini-match started by serving first instead of having the 14-time grand slam champion and power-serving Sampras serve first.

“We won the serve, and Pete told me to go for it,” Shaw said.

But Shaw said is wasn’t without some nervousness.

“I was nervous warming up. There was a decent-sized crowd, and I felt like my legs weren’t moving well,” Shaw said. “But I relaxed when I got going, and it was a lot of fun.”

The nerves started almost as soon as the two got word they would be taking part in the Serving Up Aces exhibition, which featured a singles match between the two legends, followed by a mixed doubles match with a woman from both UNC and Duke, in addition to the doubles match with two State players.

“David and I practiced a bit on Wednesday after we heard on Tuesday that we’d be playing,” Shaw said. “After we hit, we talked about all the things that could go too wrong, like whiffing on a shot or tripping during a point. If that had happened, I’d have probably had to walk off the court.”

Both players were able to avoid such a downfall; however, each had a chance to be reminded that, despite their ages, their partners still had extraordinary tennis skills.

The first time Rozek sent a serve over to Sampras’s court, it promptly came back over as the seven-time Wimbledon champion crushed a return winner.

“It wasn’t my best second-serve, but I didn’t think it was a meatball,” Rozek said. “He did.”

With the score at 3-2, McEnroe hit a flat serve that hit the center “T” for an ace against Shaw.

“I felt kinda stupid. It wasn’t his fastest serve. He just placed it really well. I was expecting a slice out wide, since he had done almost all wide serves against Sampras in the singles,” Shaw said. “But he changed it, and I got cross-footed.”

At the time, Shaw said he felt there was no way he should have been aced on that.

“But, looking back, it was pretty good,” he said.

Each player would have his revenge, though.

“I won a point on Sampras’s serve,” Rozek said. “And I felt like I did my job holding my own serve twice in a row.”

Shaw said he got his own highlight play in too.

“I ripped a backhand winner at McEnroe for match point, and he missed it,” Shaw said. “I sort of don’t remember much of the match vividly because I was trying to make sure not to mess up, but I remember that shot clearly.”

That match-point shot came right after McEnroe had a bit of fun with a heckling fan.

“Come on Mac, you gotta win something!” the fan yelled, referring to McEnroe’s losses in both the feature singles match and the mixed-doubles contest earlier in the afternoon.

McEnroe, who won seven Grand Slam Singles titles and another 10 Grand Slam doubles championships during his career, responded by turning his back to the fan and dropping his blue shorts in a half-moon, revealing his boxers to the heckler, eliciting huge applause and laughter from the RBC Center crowd of roughly 5,500.

“It was a cool, fun experience all-around,” Shaw said. “Though I did have to have a word with Pete for beating my boy Tim Henman seemingly every year at Wimbledon.”