Samprasfanz

Source: Christopher Clarey IHT, Friday, October 11, 2002

So what would you do in the unlikely event you were Pete Sampras?

Stop on top after the perfect ending? Or follow your career-long plan and swing away into your 30s for the sheer, untrumpable thrill of playing the game you love on the biggest stages for as long as possible?

Just six weeks ago, the chances that Sampras would face this sort of win-win proposition looked as remote as the prospect of him win-winning on Paris clay. But that was before he ripped through the draw and the most emblematic adversary possible in Andre Agassi to hold up the trophy at the U.S. Open.

Since then, he has been reveling in the unexpected buzz, enjoying married life in Southern California and considering his options.

His first child is due in early December, and he has said that he will not play again this year and intends to make a decision on his future by the end of this month. Early indications are that he is leaning toward retirement, and when he told his longtime coach Paul Annacone during a golf game last weekend that he was giving it serious thought, Annacone said he told Sampras: “Pretty romantic