Posted on: October 02nd, 2002
Is Pete done?
- petepage[October 2, 2002 Patrick McEnroe, Special to ESPN.com] Pete Sampras never got excited about playing at this time of the year anyway, but he had to before. So it's not entirely surprising that he's pulled out of the rest of this year's tournaments.
The honest truth is that I don't think anybody, including Pete Sampras, knows if this really is it. He still has some desire to go out and play -- especially after what happened at the U.S. Open.
He loves to play and to win. He also realizes that this is the dream-come-true way to go out. What a way to ride off into the sunset: win your 14th Grand Slam and your fifth U.S. Open by beating your main rival, Andre Agassi, who has been playing the better tennis recently, and then go off and live in your mansion in Hawaii.
But what about the competitive side to Pete? He likes to work out. He likes to play golf. He'll get bored. What else can he do to keep him excited when he knows he can go out and win another Grand Slam or two?
I would be surprised if he doesn't come back to give Wimbledon another shot next year. He doesn't want 2002 to be his last memory from there: walking off Court 2 after losing to George Bastl in the second round.
Sampras proved everyone wrong at the U.S. Open, so he's got nothing to lose by coming back. People say he's going to ruin his legacy; I don't buy that. He's
certainly had enough losses the past two years to have done that already if it was a possibility. His legacy is secure no matter what happens. He could go out and play six months next year and win two matches without affecting his legacy.
His future depends totally on what he wants to do -- whether he wants to train hard and play those tournaments he doesn't like. He hasn't been worried about being No. 1 for the past couple of years and could care less about where he's ranked at now.
It's going to be difficult, in my mind, to show up in Australia having not played in four or five months and have a shot there. The court conditions are slower, and he will have just become a daddy. I'd be surprised to see him show up in Australia.
Obviously, he's seriously considering retiring by pulling out of these tournaments. He's not got the itch to train and play. He's earned the chance to take the time off. I hope it doesn't turn into a guessing game for the next four to six months. It would be annoying, for him, if the question just kept coming up.
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