Samprasfanz

[May 15, 2003 By Cynthia Faulkner] When Pete Sampras’ coach Paul Annacone talks about the man he’s coached for the better part of 15 years, the word superstar pops up more than once. But on Thursday night, after Sampras said he’s not planning on playing the rest of the year, so did the word normal.

And Sampras looked like a normal guy — a sports fan sitting courtside at the Lakers game with his wife. But still neither man called this break by the R-word.

“Although he isn’t retiring, he’s not going to play and continue not to play for the time being — just to get his bearings down and see if the fire starts to burn to get back out there,” Annacone told ESPN.com. “But right now he doesn’t want to do it halfway, so he felt like this is the best thing to do. Even though Wimbledon does have that special place in his heart, the last thing he wants to do is be over there and not be prepared.”

“I kind of have to own up to the fact that my heart’s not into it,” Sampras told ESPN’s Alex Flanagan, while attending Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals in Los Angeles.

Sampras once said he wanted to retire on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Instead, last year, the place where he won seven of his 14 Grand Slams became the site of his biggest career disappointment. He lost on an outside court in the second round. And if he can’t feel the fire to come back this year, the possibility of a glorious ending on Centre Court seems more unlikely.

“As much as you want to make things special and unique with superstars,” Annacone said, “it’s really a phase of life that he’s going through and he’s just trying to really sort it all out before he says ‘OK, I’m definitely done,’ or ‘OK, I just needed a break and now I’m ready to go again.’ I think th
at’s human nature. After all, no matter how good these athletes are they are human beings and they go through everything else that we do, they just tend to do what they do a little bit better than everybody else.”

A little bit better seems modest in this case. Sampras is arguably the best tennis player who ever lived. He holds the record for major titles and held onto the No. 1 ranking for six consecutive years. And because of that, he’s not willing to get back on a court again unless he’s put in the prep time.

“I go to win,” Sampras said. “I don’t just go to play.”

Although both say he lacks match toughness, Annacone said Sampras is working out regularly, though not always on the tennis court.

“He does some beach volleyball stuff,” Annacone said. “He plays basketball. He sees his trainer regularly lifting weights. (He’s) doing some plyometric stuff for leg strength and things of that nature. From time to time we’re out there hitting tennis balls, but it’s not a daily routine. It’s just enough to keep the cobwebs off, so he feels relatively sharp when he’s out there swinging the racket.”

He’s spending time with wife Bridgette Wilson, son Christian, and family members living in California all while preparing for the eventual day when the announcement becomes official.

“I think he’s been leading a relatively normal life and enjoying that for the time being — looking after some potential business needs and looking for opportunities to do things down the road business-wise because ultimately whether it’s this year or next, he’s going to be done playing tennis,” Annacone said.

But Sampras isn’t ready to say he’s done yet.

“There might be a day, six months from now, that I’ll want to get back into playing again. I’m my own boss, which is nice,” Sampras said.

“For the time being, he’s very happy and content with where he is,” Annacone said. “But you know, we’ll see how that human nature evolves after not being in a place that’s been so special to him. Who knows, I could speculate as to what that’
s going to be but we really won’t know until after the tournaments are over.”

For now, both men are living life differently. Preparing for that so-called normal life. After being Sampras’ coach for the better part of 15 years, Annacone is starting to serve as an off-court advisor.

“Sure my heart is on the tennis court with Pete Sampras, but the deepest part of my heart’s really our friendship and the other ways I can help make his life and his business opportunities happy and healthy.”

Annacone knows the time is fast approaching that Sampras will have to make a decision but he still believes that a champion can still win.

“The longer you wait the more difficult it is,” Annacone said. “Being in sports as long as I have, I think the special athletes and superstars need challenges and who knows maybe this is one of those challenges that will ignite the flame and maybe burn even brighter where he’s thinking ‘no one has sat out this long and come back and done a terrific job, so that’s what I’d like to do’. I don’t think he’s consciously sitting there and thinking about that. I think that the longer you wait for any human being the more difficult it is particularly at this stage of his career.”

But while the coach talks about potential challenges, he’s also reflecting on the glory of a potential final moment at last year’s U.S. Open. Fittingly ending a stellar career at the place where it began with Sampras’ first major victory in 1990.

“It’s a tough decision,” Annacone said. “I think romantically in everyone’s mind, and probably in my mind, too, to think of your last match being against Andre Agassi at the center court of the U.S. Open, it’s kind of a nice thing to think about, a way to stop. But in actuality can you do that or do you want to do that? Those are the kind of things that he’s mulling over.”

Mulling over whether to go after a normal life, if that’s even possible for a superstar.