Samprasfanz

[June 22, 2003 Charles Bricker] For the first time in 15 years, including seven in which he raised the championship trophy over his head on the final Sunday, Pete Sampras is not at Wimbledon.

His locker in the gentlemen’s clubhouse has been passed on to another player. You won’t find him on his favorite practice court, gagging it up and betting dinners with Tim Henman or Jeff Tarango that he can whip them in a tiebreaker. The house he rented for years has been let to someone else.

There is no evidence anywhere of his presence, though you might still get a chill as you enter one of the gangways on Centre Court and look down on the pristine grass which has become known, quite correctly, as Pete’s Lawn.

Yankee Stadium without Babe Ruth. Chicago Stadium without Michael Jordan. In its own context, Wimbledon, which begins its annual fortnight run Monday, has lost just as much.

Even in his unannounced retirement, Sampras cannot be separated from this pantheon of tennis. He has won 14 Grand Slam titles, but it is at Wimbledon, not at the U.S. Open, where his greatness was forged, and he will be deeply missed.

Outwardly, Sampras displayed little change in personality or attitude over the years. He was the consummate Wimbledon sportsman — a man who held this tournament in as much or more esteem as any Brit and who never uttered a demeaning word in a news conference.

Inwardly, however, there was a petulance boiling up within him that was fed, in a reverse way, by his Wimbledon success.

He was indignant that he never received the unbounded adulation from the rest of the sports world than he routinely received from the tennis community.

And so he remains in Los Angeles, unofficially retired and happily married with a son and no apparent plans to play in 2003. Yet he has not declared himself finished as a player.

How will he be remembered at Wimbledon if he has indeed played his last match here?

Henman needed less than three seconds to answer that question. “Best grass-court player that ever lived,” Henman replied. Then he smiled. “That doesn’t take me or a rocket scientist to say that, does it?” he added.