Federer remains on course to defend his Australian Open title this week with a match against Tomas Berdych in the quarter-final his next focus.
Nadal has the slightly tougher test of facing world No 6 Marin Cilic in his last-eight clash and the winner will face either Grigor Dimitrov or Kyle Edmund in the semi-final.
At 36 years old Federer admits he has had to adapt his game in order to still compete at the top.
It is something Sampras also had to do towards the end of his illustrious career.
Federer was speaking about the differences to both Sampras and Nadal’s service styles in order to build up rhythm throughout the match.
And he sees more similarities between himself and Sampras than the Spaniard.
“There was a bit of a lack of rhythm some times and then on the return games you’re supposed to feel great and sometimes you don’t,” Federer told Eurosport.
“I think that was one reason why Rafa also slowed down his first serve back in the day to actually almost get a rally to get a rhythm so then on the return game he could create something through his service games for the returning.
“So with my serve I think I have the best chance to win the point so I focus hard on that.
“On the return games, if you’re winning your games so easily you can actually hit more free, and that’s what Pete [Sampras] did.
“He might not have connected with three, four games in a row but all he needed was that one game where everything went well and that’s when he broke and that’s how he won the set.
“So maybe I’m more definitely in Pete’s area than Rafa’s.”