ESPN.com
Thursday, May 15
Sampras isn't playing but is it the end?
By Cynthia Faulkner
When Pete Sampras' coach Paul Annacone talks about the man he's
coached for the better part of 15 years, the word superstar pops up
more than once. But on Thursday night, after Sampras said he's not
planning on playing the rest of the year, so did the word normal.
Pete Sampras, left, might call it a career after defeating lifelong
rival Andre Agassi at last year's U.S. Open.
And Sampras looked like a normal guy -- a sports fan sitting
courtside at the Lakers game with his wife. But still neither man
called this break by the R-word.
"Although he isn't retiring, he's not going to play and continue not
to play for the time being -- just to get his bearings down and see
if the fire starts to burn to get back out there," Annacone told
ESPN.com. "But right now he doesn't want to do it halfway, so he felt
like this is the best thing to do. Even though Wimbledon does have
that special place in his heart, the last thing he wants to do is be
over there and not be prepared."
"I kind of have to own up to the fact that my heart's not into it,"
Sampras told ESPN's Alex Flanagan, while attending Game 6 of the
Western Conference semifinals in Los Angeles.
Sampras once said he wanted to retire on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Instead, last year, the place where he won seven of his 14 Grand
Slams became the site of his biggest career disappointment. He lost
on an outside court in the second round. And if he can't feel the
fire to come back this year, the possibility of a glorious ending on
Centre Court seems more unlikely.
"As much as you want to make things special and unique with
superstars," Annacone said, "it's really a phase of life that he's
going through and he's just trying to really sort it all out before
he says 'OK, I'm definitely done,' or 'OK, I just needed a break and
now I'm ready to go again.' I think that's human nature. After all,
no matter how good these athletes are they are human beings and they
go through everything else that we do, they just tend to do what they
do a little bit better than everybody else."
A little bit better seems modest in this case. Sampras is arguably
the best tennis player who ever lived. He holds the record for major
titles and held onto the No. 1 ranking for six consecutive years. And
because of that, he's not willing to get back on a court again unless
he's put in the prep time.
"I go to win," Sampras said. "I don't just go to play."
Although both say he lacks match toughness, Annacone said Sampras is
working out regularly, though not always on the tennis court.
"He does some beach volleyball stuff," Annacone said. "He plays
basketball. He sees his trainer regularly lifting weights. (He's)
doing some plyometric stuff for leg strength and things of that
nature. From time to time we're out there hitting tennis balls, but
it's not a daily routine. It's just enough to keep the cobwebs off,
so he feels relatively sharp when he's out there swinging the
racket."
He's spending time with wife Bridgette Wilson, son Christian, and
family members living in California all while preparing for the
eventual day when the announcement becomes official.
"I think he's been leading a relatively normal life and enjoying that
for the time being -- looking after some potential business needs and
looking for opportunities to do things down the road business-wise
because ultimately whether it's this year or next, he's going to be
done playing tennis," Annacone said.
But Sampras isn't ready to say he's done yet.
"There might be a day, six months from now, that I'll want to get
back into playing again. I'm my own boss, which is nice," Sampras
said.
"For the time being, he's very happy and content with where he is,"
Annacone said. "But you know, we'll see how that human nature evolves
after not being in a place that's been so special to him. Who knows,
I could speculate as to what that's going to be but we really won't
know until after the tournaments are over."
For now, both men are living life differently. Preparing for that
so-called normal life. After being Sampras' coach for the better part
of 15 years, Annacone is starting to serve as an off-court
advisor.
"Sure my heart is on the tennis court with Pete Sampras, but the
deepest part of my heart's really our friendship and the other ways I
can help make his life and his business opportunities happy and
healthy."
Annacone knows the time is fast approaching that Sampras will have to
make a decision but he still believes that a champion can still
win.
"The longer you wait the more difficult it is," Annacone said. "Being
in sports as long as I have, I think the special athletes and
superstars need challenges and who knows maybe this is one of those
challenges that will ignite the flame and maybe burn even brighter
where he's thinking 'no one has sat out this long and come back and
done a terrific job, so that's what I'd like to do'.
I don't think he's consciously sitting there and thinking about that.
I think that the longer you wait for any human being the more
difficult it is particularly at this stage of his career."
But while the coach talks about potential challenges, he's also
reflecting on the glory of a potential final moment at last year's
U.S. Open. Fittingly ending a stellar career at the place where it
began with Sampras' first major victory in 1990.
"It's a tough decision," Annacone said. "I think romantically in
everyone's mind, and probably in my mind, too, to think of your last
match being against Andre Agassi at the center court of the U.S.
Open, it's kind of a nice thing to think about, a way to stop. But in
actuality can you do that or do you want to do that? Those are the
kind of things that he's mulling over."
Mulling over whether to go after a normal life, if that's even
possible for a superstar.