MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Despite traveling the world and sharing hours in practice, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras apparently never spoke about the men’s Grand Slam record.

Federer, who plays top-ranked Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s Australian Open final for a chance at a 14th major, toured with Sampras for a series of exhibition matches in Asia in late 2007 and a match at New York’s Madison Square Garden last March.

Somehow the chances of Federer equaling Sampras’ record of 14 majors never came up in conversation.

"I didn’t ask him how many he thought I was going to win, you know. This is not stuff you ask Pete," Federer said. "We were mostly just chatting about how it was for him to stay at the top for so long and how it is for me and how different it is today maybe than it was back then. I think it was more about that."

Federer said he got a big thrill from spending so much time with Sampras, who retired after winning the U.S. Open in 2002.

"It was, just for me, a great honor to be around Pete for like a week, day in and day out, playing him and practicing with him and doing press conferences with him," the 27-year-old Swiss star said.