SE-ATP0308E

ATP tennis.com
August 2003
Praising Pete

Read what has been said about Sampras thoughout his career:

Mark Miles, CEO ATP, August 21, 2003
"Pete Sampras' retirement is a time for us to honor the outstanding career of a champion who inspired us to be perfectionists. Since he claimed his first ATP title in Philadelphia and the US Open trophy in 1990 -- the same year the ATP was founded -- Pete has won an astonishing 64 titles, including 14 Grand Slams and 11 Tennis Masters Series. While collecting these honors, he's thrilled millions of fans across the globe with his prowess on the court and grace off of it. His passion for excellence and dedication to success make him a model athlete that will be celebrated for generations to come. Sampras may be retiring from professional tennis, but his legacy will carry on. We at the ATP want to thank Pete for all that he's done for the sport, and we are privileged to have been there from the beginning to witness the rise of perhaps the greatest champion of all time."

John McEnroe, The Daily Telegraph (UK), August 25, 2003
"I never saw Don Budge, Fred Perry or Lew Hoad play, but I have either watched or played against the greatest players of the open era and, for me, Sampras ranks alongside my idol Rod Laver as the greatest of that period. I am loathe to put anyone ahead of a player who twice achieved the Grand Slam as Laver did - not to mention one who was a fellow lefty - but Sampras, the 14-time slam winner, was at least the Australian's equal in terms of ability. In fact, if they could have player each other in their prime, I've no doubt Sampras would have won more often. He had all the shots and was also a much better athlete than people gave him credit for. If his volleying was not quite as good as the rest of his game when he started, it was at least as good long before the end of it. It was the same with the mental side of his game; he knew what he had to do to develop."

Boris Becker, The Times (UK), August 27, 2003
"He had a talent that does not come around very often, a natural, who produced the kind of shots you didn't see from a regular 18 or 19-year-old. People didn't hit the running cross-court forehand like he did, you were not supposed to ace guys with your second serve. He had trouble dealing with the fame and the expectations on him I could relate to that but the players knew that when he was on, you couldn't touch him. That is what made him so special.

John Roberts, The Independent (UK), August 23, 2003
From the moment his career took off at 19 as the youngest United States Open men's singles champion in 1990, Pete Sampras was destined to be something of an enigma. To some he was brilliant, and expression of all that was good in the sport. To others he was dull but efficient. The word that really sums him up is phenomenal.

Bud Collins, NBC's Tennis Central (U.S.A.), August 22, 2003
"I hate to see Sampras depart the sport because he was so good to watch. He seemed the DiMaggio of tennis, killingly graceful and effortless in movement, making the big plays as though routine, ever on offense with sparkling volleying. Is that why some found him boring? I thought that judgement absurd. How could you not admire such silken, fluid, unflappable performances? He was greatness on the sneakered hoof."

Neil Harman, The Times (UK), May 17, 2003
"The languid grace combined with the devastating power of the most wonderful service action the sport has seen, the spellbinding volleys, the masterful movement, the slam-dunk overhead... all have become yesterday's treasures."

Angela Gebhardt, SportBild (Germany), May 23, 2001
"For Sampras it was instinct to do the right thing at just the right time... Like in his duels with Andre Agassi and Boris Becker. Like in his out-of-this-world Tennis Masters Cup victory in 1996 in Hannover (d. Becker 36 76 76 67 64)."

Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal (U.S.A.), February 21, 2001
"The guy is not just Wimbledon's greatest champion. He's not just one of the two or three best tennis players who's ever lived. He's not just a player who has won 63 titles and $41 million and more Grand Slams than any man who ever hefted a racket. In a career defined by grace, Sampras has proven that image is not everything, that accomplishment matters. Win big enough, long enough and a remarkable thing happens. Substance becomes its own style."

Alain Deflassieux, L'Equipe (France), January 15, 2001
"On either side of the fireplace on the wall there are the shelves. Aligned like in a parade, there are seven vermeillon replicas of the Wimbledon trophies that he has won. This is very impressive, one even gets goose bumps knowing that he is the only human being in the world able to display this kind of a collection. Elsewhere sit the cups of the other tournaments he has won: US Open, Australian Open, Davis Cup and still others that recall his victories at the Masters and his rank as No. 1 in the world."

S.L. Price, Sports Illustrated (U.S.A.), July 12, 1999
"Sampras on grass is like gasoline on fire: nearly impossible to stop once he gets going."

Wolfgang Wonesch, Sport Magazin (Austria), January 1998
"Pete Sampras is quite possibly the only present-day tennis god to electrify the public just with his performance. No AC/DC concert has the same electrifying quality as a Sampras masterpiece on court."

Steve Flink, The Independent (UK), October 7, 2002
"He has been the game's ultimate shot-making stylist, the most complete player of his generation, a remarkable sportsman and role model, a man of rare class and character."

John Roberts, The Independent (UK), March 27, 2002
"The 30-year-old American has nothing to prove. No man in the history of the sport has won as many Grand Slam singles titles - 13 - or has ended the year as the world No 1 six times in a row. And his seven Wimbledon singles championships are testimony to the expertise and elegance of his serve-volley style, a dying art."

Jim Courier, Tennis (U.S.A.), August 2003
"After Pete got another taste of success, he began to develop what would become his greatest asset, the single-mindedness that allowed him to focus on the only thing he really wanted; to win major titles. Once his ambition crystallized, Pete never strayed from that focus. He lost Tim to brain cancer midcourse, but even then he didn't break stride. Pete modeled himself on heroes from another era, and we discovered that he really was one of those tight-lipped, modest, classy Australian champions of the '50s and '60s."

Sally Jenkins, Tennis (U.S.A.), August 2003
"He abbreviated so many points, squelched so many hopes, with that great blast of a serve. He lulled opponents and audiences alike with the trancelike rhythm of his game and the monotony with which he acquired titles and records. But Sampras played complete and deeply realized tennis too; he never bored the connoisseurs or those who understood that beneath the seeming indifference lay a craving for the game so powerful that he twice vomited on the court and once even wept on it. As his former coach Paul Annacone said, "Pete makes it look too easy. People watch him and think, 'That doesn't look too hard'."