The best part of three pages of a ten-page sports section in The New York Times were taken up with advertisements for the showdown that was a 19,000 sell-out at Madison Square Garden within two days of the tickets going on sale. For a city brimming with so much choice, it almost overwhelms you that the prospect of Pete Sampras playing tennis against Roger Federer held astonishing thrall.

The pair faced off in an exhibition during the early hours of this morning, reviving memories of Decembers past when this sporting mecca on Seventh Avenue housed the forerunner to the Masters Cup. Ivan Lendl, seven times a finalist and four times the champion at the MSG, was the co-promoter of last night's bill-topper.

Yesterday, Federer and Sampras indulged in pre-match banter that emphasised once more that the American, who will be 37 this year, has come cascading out of his shell, the champion who gave little away now the sage whose every word reeks of common sense and clarity. He was the one cracking the jokes, offering cute one-liners that had the audience wondering who was this guy who looked very much like Pete Sampras.

The pair met once on the official tour, in the fourth round of the 2001 Wimbledon, which Federer won in five sets, a match Sampras remarked he did not enjoy “watching”. “Hopefully, I can find some of the old magic again here,” he added. “I still serve pretty well, I serve and volley OK, but I don't move as well as I did, obviously because I play so sporadically. I hope he'll let me win a couple of early service games and I might have a chance.

“Roger has done great things for the sport, the way he handles himself, he is a great credit, a humble champion who is not brash or abrasive. He does not show up his opponent or often lose his cool. He's my sort of player.”

Sampras is certain his record of 14 grand-slam tournament wins will fall to Federer, who is on 12. “He's lost a couple of matches recently and people think his edge has gone,” he said. “Let's keep it real. I have no doubt that when the big prizes are handed out in the next couple of years, he'll be the one holding them up.”

The conference was interrupted by a question in Swiss-German. Federer stared down the inquisitor and answered with a flourish. “Have we missed a headline?” Sampras asked.

“In Switzerland, there is a lot of speculation that my career is over,” Federer said. “I've told them I'm not miserable, I'm not down and out. I hope that set the record straight.”

Federer said that he was over a bout of glandular fever, which undermined his health before the Australian Open and was instrumental in his lacklustre semi-final defeat by Novak Djokovic, of Serbia. “He's the guy with personality, who does impressions,” Sampras interjected. “If you call that personality.”