Tennis legends to play exhibition at Staples Center

It’s not the Lakers, but there will be legends playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Staples Center.

Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and John McEnroe, who collectively won 31 major tennis titles, will play one another in the HSBC Tennis Cup presented by Cancer Treatment Centers of America. It’s part of the Champions Series that will conclude at the end of the year with the top three players splitting a $1-million bonus.

This stop is No. 8 on a 12-city tour that also features Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Michael Chang, Todd Martin and Ivan Lendl.

At Staples, Agassi will play McEnroe in the first match Friday followed by Sampras against Courier. The two winners will then meet in an eight-game pro-set championship match. Sampras is the overall leader so far in the series.

McEnroe said the tour has been rewarding in a non-financial way. “We’re finding out parents are bringing their kids out to see us because there’s a generation that hasn’t seen me, Andre, Pete, Jim. Maybe they’ve heard our names, but they don’t know about the rivalries and the interesting matchups. For one night in a big venue you get to see four great players.”

It is not the normal exhibition tennis, as McEnroe said, “none of that hit-and-giggle stuff. We’re competitive guys. I don’t think there’s one of us who doesn’t want to win.”

McEnroe has been limping around with hamstring aches and pains because of training. He said Sampras, who is 40, could go to Wimbledon and, “with the right draw, win a match or two just with his serve because that’s how good it still is.”

Courier said that he and Sampras were on a flight together after an event in Florida and Sampras was peppering him with the same question. “He kept wanting to know if I was guessing on his serve,” Courier said, “because he couldn’t figure out how I returned some of them. I told him, yes, I was guessing. And I was. But that’s how competitive this is.”

Sampras said he’s been impressed with how much the fans understand about what made each of the players great.

“They want to see me serve and volley,” he said. “They want to see Andre make great service returns, see Jim cracking it from the baseline, see John at the net. Maybe it’s the kind of variety they don’t get much anymore.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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