Posted on: October 02nd, 2002
Tennis-Sampras may not play again this year, Swiss event says
- petepageOssian Shine /LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras will miss this month's Swiss Indoor Championships and may not play again this year, organisers of the Basel event said on Wednesday.
The holder of a record 14 grand slam titles told the Swiss championships of his decision to withdraw through a phone call from his management company, the tournament said.
"The message we got was that he would not be playing here, and probably would not be playing in the European indoor season at all," Juerg Vogel told Reuters.
"We have had a phone call from his agents but nothing on paper yet. We do need confirmation on paper before we can start offering his place in the draw to the next highest-ranked player.
"But we certainly felt that it was our obligation to give full notice to the public that Pete Sampras would not be playing here this year.
"His baby is due at the start of December and the impression we got was that he would not be playing this year ... probably not in the Masters Cup season-ender in Shanghai in November.
"As I say, we are waiting for official confirmation from his management.
STORYBOOK ENDING
"But we still have a very strong field. We have five of the top 10 players in the world in our field. Sampras would have been seeded eighth."
Last month, having defied the odds, age, fatigue and an army of critics to claim an unprecedented 14th career grand slam title with an emotional victory over Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open, Sampras hinted that his most unlikely victory could well be the storybook ending to a brilliant career.
"I'm going to have to weigh it up over the next couple months to see where I'm at," Sampras said at the time. "I still want to play, I love to play.
"But to beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the U.S. Open ... a storybook ending, it might be a nice way to stop.
"I'll see where I'm at in the next couple of months, where my hearts at and my mind.
"I feel like all the hard work has paid off. All the adversity this year, I got through it and that means more to me than anything.
"I really don't know where I'm going to go from here. I'm going to take some time to enjoy this and reflect a bit."
Sampras's management company -- the William Morris Agency -- were not immediately contactable for comment on Wednesday.
The Swiss Indoors takes place from October 21 to 27.
The field is led by Germany's world number two Tommy Haas, defending titleholder Tim Henman, Monte Carlo champion Juan-Carlos Ferrero, French Open winner Albert Costa and former world number one Carlos Moya of Spain.
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