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| RACQUET YEARBOOK 1993 The next No. 1 Sampras on the Verge Interview: Karen Day |
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Times have certainly changed for one 21-years-old from Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Back in his junior days, Pete Sampras was a two-fisted baseliner who rarely challenged the net. After deciding that he needed to change his game, he abandoned his two-handed backhand, beefed up his serve and launched full steam out of the juniors. Then, two years ago, he shook up the tennis world when he captured his first Grand Slam title: the U.S. Open. By climbing to an all-time high of No. 2 last year, he made another leap toward the coveted top spot. Today, there is only one place left for Sampras to go, and this year could be the year. Racquet: You had quite a year in 1992, jumping from No. 6 to No. 2 in the rankings. Is there a specific match or tournament that helped you make this transition? Sampras: After I won Philadelphia, I moved to No. 3. During this time, I think Becker and Stich dropped in the rankings. Neither of them had a great year in 1992, but I guess I was surprised that they dropped. So my win and their drop enabled me to move up. And what this did was to help raise my tennis game. Then, I basically stayed in the top three throughout the year. Racquet: What do you think it will take to put you on top this year? Sampras: I think that in order to be at the top you have to play a lot and stay injury-free. At the beginning of last year, I pulled out of the Australian Open with a shoulder injury. If I would have done well there, who knows what would have happened in the rankings. I also had two other good chances to achieve No. 1, at the U.S. Open and again at the Stockholm Open. At this point, I can't see doing anything really different to my game. I'm not going to change. I hope to reach No. 1 sooner or later. Racquet: Is being No. 1 something you think about a lot? Sampras: Yes. I definitely talk about it quite a bit with my coach and my agent. I had two good sniffs at it, and there is no reason why I can't do it. But I'm not sure there is going to be one guy this year who is going to dominate. It's just too tough. There's too much competition. I'm 21 years old, and I'm going to have a long, good career, I hope. There's no rush. But, you know, the closer I get, the more I want to be No. 1. I think the U.S. Open really affected me quite a bit in that it was a big disappointment. Winning the tournament and then becoming No. 1 would have put the icing on the cake. Racquet: How do you account for what happened at the Open? Sampras: I had two really good weeks before, winning in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. I went into the Open and started the first week pretty well. Then, I had this scare against Toad Martin in one of the early rounds. I hadn't played a bad match all summer, and that was one of the worst matches I've ever played. I was down a break in the second set, and I was frustrated. I started moping and hanging my head down a little bit. That's something you just can't do. It was really tough for me. It was a match where I had to find a way to win. Racquet: How do you find a way to win? Is there something specific that you do to bring yourself back into a winning frame of mind? Sampras: Well, in a five-set match you are going to have a lot of ups and downs, especially the way I play. You can try something different, but when you're playing a match you are only thinking of trying to win the point. If you're watching the match, it's different. My coach, Tim Gullikson, sees some pretty obvious things out there. Racquet: What does he say to you after a match like the one you played against Todd Martin? Sampras: He sees that when I get my serve broken, like I did against Todd, I just seem to get deflated. My walk gets slower, and I put my head down. I lose it. It's something that I'm well-known for, losing my concentration. But I hope I'm getting better. I also think it's the way I play. Someone like Courier will play well every day. But a serve-and-volleyer like myself or Becker will always have off days. Racquet: Critics have been tough on you -- especially after losing to Stefan Edberg in the U.S. Open final -- by questioning if you have what it takes to gut out a match. How do you respond to that? Sampras: It doesn't really bother me too much. I think that the way I play, the way I carry myself on the court looks like I'm not trying. If I play well and hit great shots, everyone thinks I'm a genius. If I'm not playing well, everyone says I'm not trying, because I look the same when I'm winning and losing. But I feel that I give my all every time I play. I just show very little emotion. It seems the American press and public want to see fire in someone's eyes. I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve. I keep everything inside. I guess I'm somewhat like Edberg. Racquet: Speaking of Edberg, how do you deal with getting so close to winning a second U.S. Open title and then losing it? Sampras: I was very depressed. Before the Australian Open, Tim and I talked about my goals for the year, and I said I wanted to win the U.S. Open. So it was a huge disappointment. It was nice to win the first time, and I'll never forget it. But I think it would have meant more to me the second time around. Also, not playing well in the final was very disheartening. I was really disappointed in the way I played. I certainly mind losing, but if I would have lost and played well, it wouldn't have felt that bad. Racquet: What do you do after a loss like that? Sampras: After the match, I was with my girlfriend, Tim and my sister. I think we went out. I didn't want to watch television because I didn't want to see the highlights of the match. Then, the whole next week I didn't pick up a racquet. The loss really affected me much more than I thought it would. I had no motivation to practice or to have anything to do with tennis. But the following week was Davis Cup, and it felt pretty good to beat Stefan in the doubles. Racquet: You seemed to have a lot of fun playing doubles with John McEnroe in that Davis Cup tie. There must be a lot you can learn from such a great champion. Sampras: It was a lot of fun, especially the way we won it -- in five sets against a team that was really good. Edberg and Jarryd are one of the better teams in the world. John is one of the most intense guys that I have played with. We fed off each other, pumping each other up. If he saw my head going down a little bit, he'd say, "Come on Pete, lets go." When I lost my serve in the third set against Edberg and Jarryd, we went into the locker room for a break. He was just so positive. He never said anything technical about my game, like bend your knees or something. He just talked to me, gave me encouragement. Racquet: Do the other guys look at McEnroe as the leader on the team? Sampras: No doubt about it. Whenever we are playing and win a big point, Jim, Andre and I look over at John. We really look up to him. whatever he does, we all look at it and take it all in. He's one of the most extraordinary athletes ever to play a sport. There's going to be only one John McEnroe for a very, very long time. Racquet: Aside from McEnroe, you play Davis Cup with the same guys you grew up with in the juniors. Is there a lot of competition among you, Agassi, Courier and Chang for the No. 1 spot? Sampras: We are all good guys, and we don't take the way we play each other personally. It's like Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas. They're friends off the basketball court, but when they play, they are trying to beat each other's brains out. That's basically our attitude. Racquet: It seems that there is a pattern that occurs when you play each other. For example, Courier nearly always beats Agassi, and Chang nearly always beats you. Why do you think this happens? Sampras: I don't know what it is. Chang has a 5-1 or 6-1 record against me. Whenever I play him, I seem to always overhit or misplace shots because he's so quick. I've never really played that well against him. And I don't know what it is, but it goes all the way back to the juniors. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. Racquet: Do you socialize with any of them very much? Sampras: The only time that I'm close to Andre or Jim is during Davis Cup. We have lunch or dinner together because the week is more of a team effort. On the road, it's tough. The only person I might go out with would be Jim. I grew up playing against Jim, and we used to play a lot of doubles together. Of all the guys I know, I'm closest to him. We also enjoy a good golf game. And it's not very competitive. We just go out there to have a good time. It gets our minds off tennis and the different things in the game that we deal with like money, business and agents. It's relaxing. Racquet: Do you talk to him or anyone else on the tour about these other issues -- money, agents, dealing with the media? Sampras: Not really. We've been doing this for three or four years now, and you get used to it. All of this is part of my job. Talking to the media is part of my job. In order to be on top, you have to give up some things, like privacy. And I'm prepared to do that. Racquet: Have you ever talked to Courier about his experiences as No. 1? Sampras: Not really. The only people who talk about it a lot are the press. We can't dwell on it too much. Jim is 22 and I'm 21, and we are still at a pretty early stage in our tennis careers. It is something that will probably be more important as I get older. Racquet: Was it tough making the transition from juniors to the top ranks of the pro tour? Sampras: At first it was. After I won the U.S. Open, my tennis suffered because it was all such an adjustment. Then, once you are in the Top Ten and everyone is gunning after you -- that's something I had never felt before, either. It just takes a while to adjust, and then you get used to it. Racquet: Is there anyone on the tour whom you looked up to, who seemed to handle the adjustment periods and the pressures better than anyone else? Sampras: I always felt that the Swedes handled all of this really well. They are all good guys, and they never have much controversy around them. Especially Edberg. Racquet: When Lendl was on top in 1988 and you were new to the tour, didn't you two spend some time together? Sampras: We were both working with IMG at the time. I went up to his house for a week during the Masters and saw him play one of his better matches -- against Becker in the final. I saw what he did to prepare for his matches and how hard he worked. Racquet: How so? Sampras: I spoke to him on a Monday or Tuesday that week, and he knew exactly when he was going to practice and when he was going to play. The day he played -- and this really amazes me -- we got up at 7 a.m., went to his club and did aerobics for an hour. This is the day he played! Then we hit at Madison Square Garden. Then, we came back. I went for a long bike ride, he took a nap. And then he went back to play his match. He is really structured, really organized. I admire that. Racquet: Did you pick up some good habits that helped you in your climb up the rankings? Sampras: Yes. I have a little talent and, in order to reach my full potential, I knew I would have to work hard. But that's something I never really did too much when I started out playing on the tour. I plateaued at about No. 90 and stayed there for six or eight months. Basically, I just played. I didn't do any training off the court, and I practiced some, but I didn't practice with much intensity. Then I got a full-time coach and a full-time trainer. Now, I work really hard. Racquet: Have you maintained a relationship with Lendl since then? Sampras: I think the media really blew that out of proportion. I just spent one week with him. We're still friends, but I don't talk to him on the phone. We don't go out. You can be close to the guys on the tour, but I wouldn't say that there are too many guys in the top 15 who are very close to each other. Racquet: Are most of your friends non-tennis players? Sampras: To tell you the truth, I don't have too many close friends. I would call my girlfriend my best friend. And I'm very close to my family. On the tour, I'm not really in one city that long. And in high school, I didn't really go out very much. I played tennis all the time. Racquet: How do you feel about your prospects for the upcoming year? Sampras: I hope I'll get the breaks in 1993. I came very close last year, but it wasn't good enough. Being No. 1 is something I definitely want to achieve before my career is finished. |