Samprasfanz

By DALE ROBERTSON

Pete Sampras could have launched his competitive comeback in a lot of places. River Oaks Country Club won out because of its … golf course.

Well, maybe that’s an overstatement. Truth to tell, Sampras liked everything about the River Oaks proposal. But he definitely had fond memories of his first visit to the club when IMG dispatched him here as a gawky, unknown 17-year-old.

“I remember the old wood stadium and this great golf course there,” Sampras said.

The stadium’s gone, replaced by a modern concrete and metal structure a number of years ago, but the River Oaks layout has only become lovelier than what Sampras remembers. As part of his deal, Sampras, 34, will play a round or two with the tournament’s sponsors the morning after his best-of-three match April 6, probably against Robby Ginepri or Taylor Dent.

Sampras has practiced with Dent in the past and even played him once on the ATP Tour, winning two tiebreaker sets at Cincinnati in 2000. He never has faced Ginepri in a match but has hit with him.

Until he signed off on his first foray back into the game since he won the U.S. Open in 2002, Sampras said he had not struck a tennis ball seriously in 3 1/2 years.

“I need to get serious about it again,” he said. “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.”

This might not be the only time we see Sampras on a tennis court in Houston this year. Because he is going to play World Team Tennis, there is always a chance he will face off against the Houston team at Westside Tennis Club, and “it’s not out of the question” that he’ll return to play in Jim Courier’s Stanford Financial Cup event at River Oaks in November.

Sampras is trying to put together a senior tournament of his own for the Los Angeles area, where he lives, or Scottsdale, Ariz., during the fall. But if he can’t get that together this year, he becomes a candidate for the Houston tournament field.

“Last year, I got a little bored,” he said. “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.”

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Source: Houston Chronicle