March 14, 2006
Sampras Serious About April Exhibition, Minus Young
By Richard Vach, Tennis-X.com Senior Writer
Pete Sampras is preparing for his first public appearance since the final of the 2002 US Open when he beat Andre Agassi, switching retirement gears from the golf course to the practice court to take on either Taylor Dent of Robby Ginepri at the River Oaks International exhibition on April 3-9, 2006.
"I need to get serious about it again," Sampras told The Houston Chronicle. "I've got to get my body back into tennis shape, and my arm into shape for serving again. I've been hitting three, four times a week for the last few weeks. It's less about hitting the ball and more about getting used to the starting and stopping. I don't want to hurt myself straight away."
Sampras was expected to play against 16-year-old "prodigy" Donald Young, whose pro career has taken a hit with management company IMG's attempted fast-tracking of the youth, but those plans were apparently changed while the American dropped his career tour mark to 0-8 this week at Indian Wells. River Oaks organizers couldn't be too happy with the prospect of Sampras having to shift down a few gears just to keep Young in the match.
Which would be the worse lose-lose situation, Sampras thumping a 16-year-old who has never even won a Futures title, or losing to a 16-year-old who has failed to win an ATP-level match in eight attempts? No word on whether it was Sampras or exhibition organizers that pulled the plug on that once-promising match-up.
The River Oaks exhibition is a warm-up for the 34-year-old's World Team Tennis debut in July.
"This is more about just getting myself a little busier and focused on something I used to be good at," Sampras said. "It's time this year to do a little more. Last year, I was kind of floating along."
Jim Courier, who won the senior tour Outback Champions Cup-Naples Monday night, has been trying to recruit Sampras to make his senior tour debut in 2006.
"My feeling is Pete will really only play when he's good and ready," Courier said. "I don't think he wants to come out and test the waters and see how it is. I think he'll make a decision to do it or to not do it, and that will be his. We certainly respect that."
Sampras says don't expect too much as he is simply looking for an alternative to sitting on the couch watching TV or playing with the kids.
"Last year, I got a little bored," Sampras said, adding he wouldn't be interested in playing a number of senior events such as the comeback former No. 1 Marcelo Rios has planned later this year. "My competitive juices are flowing again. But I just want to have some fun on the court. This isn't a comeback. This is my 'I'm-still-retired' comeback."
Richard Vach is a senior writer for Tennis-X.com and can currently be seen on The Tennis Channel's "Tennis Insiders: Super Insiders" episodes.