January 20, 2000
Lucky No. 13
By Steve Flink
With a dozen majors to boot, Pete Sampras will attempt to shatter
that record at Melbourne
A few weeks ago -- after a brilliant but disrupted 1999 campaign had concluded, before he would take his talent and temerity into 2000 and a new century -- Pete Sampras was relaxing in his Beverly Hills home. We were talking on the telephone. The 28-year-old American was in a reflective mood, willing to address a wide range of topics, able to express himself with the growing self-assurance he has steadily developed in recent years. He spoke with diplomacy but without inhibition, answered with unmistakable confidence but not arrogance, responded directly to everything he was asked. He sounded more than ready to get on with the rest of his career.
As Sampras examined the 2000 season, it was apparent he had rearranged his priorities. His goals and objectives have changed, and that is why he has made a full commitment to represent the United States in Davis Cup this year. Having celebrated a record six consecutive years as the No. 1 ranked player in the world on the ATP computer from 1993-98, he realized an immense ambition. Now he is pointing towards other targets, seeking different rewards. He is willing to make the personal sacrifices to play for his nation in 2000.
"I am looking forward to it," says Sampras. "I have reached the point where I have achieved some goals and that has given me the opportunity to play Davis Cup. I will be a part of it with Andre [Agassi] and John [McEnroe] and Todd [Martin] and the other guys. John is the captain now and I am happy to be playing for him, but if Tom Gullikson was still the captain I would still be playing. It should be interesting and good for tennis in the U.S. to have Andre and John and myself all involved. We just need to get off to a good start in Zimbabwe."
Gullikson knew how to communicate with Sampras during tense Cup contests. As friends, there was an almost unspoken understanding between them. Is Sampras concerned that the highly charged McEnroe might tell him more than he wants to hear in the heat of competition? "We will talk about that," he answers. "I am going to communicate well with John and talk to him before we play. He knows what I am like, and realizes I don't like to hear a lot of things. I don't want anyone losing composure, and John is pretty calm the majority of the time. Andre might like to have more feedback from John, while I just like to hear a couple of things when I play. If John sees something and can give me some advice here or there, then I'll take it. We will work it out in Zimbabwe. It shouldn't be a problem."
The American contingent has every reason to believe they can bring the Cup back to the U.S. for the first time since 1995, when Sampras almost single-handedly beat the Russians in the final at Moscow by contributing two singles triumphs and a doubles win alongside Martin. With a year-long mission in mind for Davis Cup in 2000, Sampras knows he will need to diminish his appearances on the ATP Tour to keep fit and fresh.
The ATP Tour has made a radical alteration in its ranking system, shifting to an annual points race which will determine a final and definitive list at the end of the year. The leading competitors are expected to appear in all nine Tennis Masters Series (formerly known as the Super Nine) events and the four Grand Slam tournaments. In addition to those required 13 appearances, the players count their five best International Series events from the tour for a total of 18 performances for the year.
For many players, this system will work productively. Sampras, however, is not prepared at this stage of his career to make that many commitments on top of his Davis Cup responsibility ties. "I can understand what the tour is trying to do," he asserts, "but I am probably going to have to let go of the ranking since I am playing Davis Cup all year. I am not playing all nine [of the Tennis Masters Series]. I am going to have a schedule that gives me the best chance to win the majors and play some other tournaments. The tour is taking the game in a direction I am not going towards."
Would he have felt differently about the new shape of the circuit had it happened three or four years ago? "When I was younger," he replies, "I would play all the tournaments and try to finish No. 1, but after breaking that record in 1998 I don't need to do it anymore. I would like to get there and I know I could if I wanted to, but I am not sure I really want to anymore. I am going to play this game for the majors, and that is what drives me to play and to continue to enjoy it. So I am not going to play all nine of those events. I might play seven." That principled stance will have financial ramifications for Sampras. Each time a leading player chooses to miss a Tennis Masters Series event, he loses one third of his bonus pool money at the end of the year. The bonus pool winner receives $1.75 million, so Sampras could conceivably stand to lose more than $1 million if he skips two of those elite tournaments.
Sampras is justified to be protective of himself and his schedule. He pushed himself almost beyond his limits in a 22 tournament blitz across 1998 to ensure that he sealed the No. 1 record. Last year, he had paced himself seemingly perfectly, skipping the Australian Open to extend his off-season, peaking in summer with a dazzling four-tournament, 24-match winning streak. ("That four tournament swing was probably the best tennis I have ever put together.") Having won a third straight singles title at Wimbledon for the second time, setting a 20th Century men's record with his six championships, Sampras was poised to capture a fifth U.S. Open crown and a record-breaking 13th career Grand Slam event. Alarmingly, he suffered a herniated disc in his back during practice the day before the Open began, and had to withdraw from his country's championship.
The depth of that disappointment left Sampras despondent. Did it ever cross his mind that he might not play the game again? "Oh, no, no, no. I never questioned that. I knew it was a setback and the timing wasn't great, but I never questioned if my health or career was in jeopardy. It was a small herniation, and the doctors assured me it was going to take a couple of months. But I never, ever questioned that I was going to be back."
As a practical and strong-minded man, Sampras did not allow missing the Open to turn his life into a nightmare. Nevertheless, it was not easy overcoming his circumstances. "I went through a huge wave of emotions," he recalls. "I couldn't wait for the Open to finish so I could put that to rest and move on. I couldn't leave my house for six or seven days because I couldn't drive. So I was stuck there. And everything stops and you are doing rehab twice a day and you can get really frustrated. I was at the point where I was thinking, "I am done for the year. I don't want to play anymore. I have lost my ranking. I have lost the whole thing. But you can't make decisions on emotion, especially when they are not good emotions. As I got more treatments, I had a better outlook. Time heals a lot of different wounds. I became hungry to play again and started thinking about what I wanted to do in 2000. Taking four months off before going to Australia and trying to win it didn't sit well with me. I wanted to see where I was."
He found out quickly. Having not played a match since August 20th in Indianapolis, Sampras returned at last at the Open de Paris indoors in the first week of November. He struggled past Francisco Clavet in three hard sets, then withdrew from the tournament with back spasms. Even many of his boosters were discouraged by that setback, knowing he had diligently done his rehabilitation, recognizing he had not rushed his return. And yet, Sampras himself was not dismayed. "I knew," he explains, "the Paraflex surface they put down in Paris has historically given me problems because it is soft and very grippy so I felt my back get tighter as the Clavet match went on. It was just muscle spasms, and muscles around my spine protecting themselves. The doctor in Paris had told me I shouldn't play in Hannover. But as I was laying on my back on that plane ride home, I remember telling my trainer that I was going to Hannover, and I would win it."
That bold prediction was remarkably prophetic. Sampras did indeed conquer the elite, eight-man field at the ATP Tour World Championships in Hannover. After a mid-week 6-2, 6-2 loss against Agassi in the round robin, he met his countryman in a final round re-match, and came through resoundingly 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 to take that title for the fifth time. As he assesses that stellar performance, Sampras comments, "It is just a different atmosphere when you walk into the last match of the millennium. The media built it up, and it was like a Grand Slam final. So I went out and played great tennis. I have always believed I have the game to get hot at the right time, and that is what happened in Hannover." He had beaten Agassi for the fourth time in five meetings over the course of the year, including the preeminent tournament in tennis and the biggest event outside the circle of the Grand Slam events. Agassi had concluded a year at No. 1 in the world for the first time in his career, but Sampras had cast a sizeable shadow over his rival's achievement.
Had Sampras not missed the Open and if he had completed a full schedule in the fall, he might well have recorded a seventh straight season at the top. Did it bother him to slip to No. 3 primarily because he was out of action for so long? "I came to the conclusion after Andre won the U.S. Open," he responds, "that I was pretty much not going to be able to do it. But when I dropped to No. 3, 4 and 5, it really didn't bother me. I feel like I have done it for so long, there is no need to prove it anymore. I felt Andre had a great year, while if you look at my year, I completed 10 tournaments and won five of them. All things considered, I felt I still had a great 1999. I didn't finish No. 1 but that's okay because I think people know who the man is. And it is not necessarily a computer who is telling people who the man is. When it comes to big matches and big occasions, I have always believed I am going to win them, and that is the most important thing to me."
After Agassi slumped to an embarrassing No. 141 in the world late in the 1997 season, he surged to No. 6 by the end of 1998. Nevertheless, few observers expected him to renew his rivalry so dramatically with Sampras during the past year. As for Sampras himself, he never doubted Agassi could and probably would resume his place in the upper echelons of the game. "I am not surprised Andre has reemerged," says Sampras. "Basically, we are both getting older and he didn't want to end his career at the rate he was going. So I knew he was going to push hard and work hard to get back to where he should be, and I always felt I am going to be somewhere near the top. When we are both playing well, there is a good chance we will play in the finals because I think we're the two best players in the world. Playing Andre in the finals of Slams, and in other places, is why I play. It is the motivation that keeps me going to play against the best. It is great for the game, especially in our country, and a rivalry that hopefully will continue in 2000 and possibly get bigger and bigger. I thrive on playing him. He gives me an opportunity to shine and show people how well we both can play this game."
Perhaps Sampras has never had a better opportunity to display the full range of his fast court talent than he did in his 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Agassi in the Wimbledon final of 1999. "It was the biggest match of the year," Sampras recalls, "and here I was playing Andre, who had just won the French and was playing great. That is enough for me to say that was probably the best match I have played in my career. I didn't realize I would play that well. I felt like I would win the match if I played well, but I didn't think I would be quite as dominant. You don't expect to get in a zone when there is so much pressure and so much riding on it. But I feel because we have so much history with our rivalry that I can go out and play pretty loose against Andre. I just have to let it go, and can't be cautious or conservative against him. I have to be even more aggressive than usual when I play Andre. It is the kind of match where I feel it is more up to me on how the match goes than him. If I am playing well than I feel like I am going to win. If I don't, or I just play okay, than I am not going to win."
As Sampras reflects on the scope of his career and classifies his rivals, he does not hesitate to say of Agassi, "All athletes have their rivals and competitors, and Andre has been the one for me over my career. Boris Becker is the other, but Andre more so because we are about the same age and we are both from the U.S. I am sure he feels the same way. We don't have any bad things to say about each other in the media. I know how good he is and he knows how good I am, and that is what really matters."
For Sampras, nothing matters more than the notion of exploring his full potential on his own terms, not according to someone else's view of his performances. He will beat himself up badly after some matches which have not measured up to his standards, but is less than delighted when other players or media critics are excessively critical of his game. A case in point was after a 7-6, 7-6 victory over Nicolas Lapentti in Hannover, only two days before he took the title so persuasively over Agassi.
During an interview after the match with Heinz Gunthardt on Eurosport, Sampras felt as if he was being interrogated, and elected to leave. "I knew I had not played well in that match," he recalls. "Everyone knew I had not played well. But I said in the interview with Gunthardt that it was a tough day but I got through it, and so on. He would not give it a rest. He went on and on about my play, so I slowly walked away from those questions. I walked out of there and left. I knew what happened and it was not like I needed to talk about it. I am a competitive guy and my own toughest critic. I didn't need someone like him to tell me I didn't play well. I'd rather have someone that has won a few majors."
A proud champion, Sampras has pursued his targets since the Australian Open of 1995 with Paul Annacone always by his side. Annacone stepped in for an ailing Tim Gullikson at that point, and took over full time the following year when Gullikson passed away. And yet, while Gullikson was given appropriately high marks for his contributions, Annacone has received nary a word in the press for his considerable input. Sampras will take constructive criticism from the insightful Annacone any time, and is deeply appreciative of Annacone's ability to give him selective tactical advice precisely when it is needed.
"Paul slowly came aboard in a very delicate situation," recollects Sampras of Melbourne '95. "Tim was going through his health problems. It took a while for us to know Paul's place because there were still question marks about Tim and whether or not he would be able to travel again. Looking at the last three or four years, Paul deserves a lot more credit than he gets, even more so than Brad Gilbert with Andre. Brad has been great for Andre, but he talks a lot more than Paul who is a soft-spoken, understated guy and doesn't crave the media. But with my record the last five years, he has done a great job. I haven't done it alone."
Meanwhile, trainer Brett Stephens is playing another crucial role in Sampras' corner. Since taking over for Todd Snyder late in 1998, Stephens has picked up on many of the same themes including lifting, biking and running. But there is one fundamental difference in Pete's training these days. As he explains, "I am lifting more weights, trying to prevent injuries, keeping my body toned and fit enough to play two-week Grand Slams tournaments in the heat. The older you get, your body changes and you have to adjust. When Michael Jordan got older he started pumping more weights. You get banged up a little more, so you need to do that."
Sampras is currently in Melbourne, back in the familiar territory of the major championships. "I am going to try to push hard to try and win the Australian Open," he says, "and if and when the day happens that I do break the record with a 13th major, I am kind of curious where my mind will be and what will drive me then. I still enjoy competing and love playing in big matches. I plan on playing this game for many years, so if I can get No. 13, I'll try and get 14 and keep it going."
Does the French Open remain as large a goal as ever? Sampras responds, "In a perfect world you would love to win all the majors and break the record, too. If I didn't do it at the French I could live the rest of my life and feel like I have had a phenomenal career; but now that I am still playing, and still fit and young enough, I want to give myself the best chance over the next three to four years to do it in Paris. If it happens, great; if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. The last couple of years, I put entirely too much pressure on myself to win the French, too much self-inflicted pressure."
In the final analysis, it is more than the quest to capture Roland Garros that keeps Pete Sampras so determined to touch the heights in the years ahead. It is a clear-eyed picture of what he wants and how he envisions attaining it that makes many things possible. He has already been honored in different quarters by some authorities as the greatest tennis player of the 20th Century, most notably in an ESPN poll taken two months ago. He responds, "It is flattering to be called that, and the ESPN thing was great. But I don't necessarily need to hear it. Laver doesn't like to talk about it either. I see myself like him: we are almost uncomfortable talking about what we do or how good we are. But don't get me wrong: it is overwhelming at times to be compared to Laver and for some people to think I am better than he was, or Borg or McEnroe and everyone else that has played this sport. And when I was in New York in December for the Sports Illustrated Sports Century awards, it hit home that I was with Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan and I was 28, still active in my tennis, and that I could add even more to what I have done. And that is my challenge these next three or four years, adding to the record I have."