Samprasfanz

By: Arash Markazi, Sports Illustrated.
August 8, 2006

Pete Sampras had grown restless. While changing diapers and helping his wife, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, around the Beverly Hills home they share with their two sons, Christian and Ryan, Sampras was getting tired of his routine of waking up in the morning and watching cartoons with the kids, then playing golf.

“I wanted to get myself busier,” said Sampras, who turns 35 this week. “I wanted to have a little more structured day. It was a general feeling I had within the past year. I was looking around, trying to see what was next.”

When he retired from tennis three years ago, Sampras shut the sport out completely. He didn’t pick up a racket, watch a match or read a single sentence about the sport that had been his life for the past 25 years.

“When I retired, I just wanted to decompress and get away from the game,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk about it, read about it