Samprasfanz

[April 4, 2006,By Bonnie DeSimone] He still pictures himself on the court, he says, serving well enough to beat Roger Federer. He still feels a shiver of longing on the last Sunday afternoon of Wimbledon.

The bottom line, though, is that Pete Sampras was one of those rare athletes who retired completely satisfied with his career. His contentment showed Tuesday as he spoke to reporters on a conference call to promote Thursday’s exhibition match in which he’ll face No. 19 Robby Ginepri at the River Oaks International tournament in Houston.

Sampras recently picked up a racket — a bigger one than he used to play with — for the first time in three years to get ready for the match and this will be his first on-court appearance since his dramatic four-set U.S. Open final win over Andre Agassi in 2002.

“Basically, after I retired, I took some time to have some fun, play some golf, and do some fun things,” said Sampras, who is married to actress Bridgette Wilson and has two sons, Christian, 3, and Ryan, who was born last July.

“After a few years of that, I asked myself what was next. I need to keep myself busier, doing more, fulfilling things. The end of last year, I opened myself up to playing this year if the right thing came to me.

“Hope I won’t embarrass myself out there.”

That seems unlikely, but the match will be on clay, Sampras’ least favorite surface, and against a worthy opponent. He said he’s preparing seriously, hitting (with partners, including Justin Gimelstob, and members of UCLA’s men’s team) a couple of hours a day, four or five times a week, for the last month.

“Playing tennis is like riding a bike