Posted on: October 04th, 2002
Sampras considers retiring on high note
- petepageBy DOUG LESMERISES,Delawareonline.com, 10/04/2002
VILLANOVA -- If Thursday night was the end of Pete Sampras' tennis career, he went out in the same city where it all began.
Twelve years ago in a midnight match in a nearly empty Spectrum, 18-year-old Sampras beat Andre Agassi, another teenage hotshot, for the first time, launching the greatest career in the history of men's tennis.
Thursday night in front of a packed house at The Pavilion on Villanova's campus, 31-year-old Sampras lost to Agassi, another old pro, possibly for the last time, perhaps ending the greatest career in the history of men's tennis.
Sampras is seriously considering retirement, having announced earlier in the week that he'd withdrawn from all the remaining ATP tournaments this season. Thursday he said he'd make a final decision on his career in the next three of four weeks, sounding very much like a man ready to hang up his racket.
"I think you just know in your heart," Sampras said. "You know when your heart is not quite into it. I'm still competitive and I still want to be out there. But there's another part of me thinking of stopping with what happened a couple of weeks ago -- having done everything I ever wanted to do in tennis."
What happened a couple weeks ago was Sampras' victory over Agassi in the finals of the U.S. Open, giving him a record 14 Grand Slam titles. Having beaten Agassi for his first Grand Slam at the 1990 U.S. Open, it brought full circle a tennis life composed of $43 million in winnings and 64 singles titles.
"Playing Andre in the final, it was a great moment for tennis and for myself," Sampras said, "so it could be a storybook ending in terms of what I've been able to do in tennis."
Philadelphia would then serve as Sampras' prelude and his postscript. After beating Agassi in the round of 16 in 1990, Sampras continued on to win the Philadelphia Indoor for his first pro title. Thursday night, Agassi beat Sampras 6-5, 6-4 as Team Billie Jean King beat Team Elton John 21-20. The event was the 10th annual World Team-Tennis Smash Hits, a charity exhibition that both Agassi and Sampras have been playing in for years.
Tennis star King and recording star John are friends who created the concept a decade ago. Thursday's match and accompanying silent auction set an event record by raising $700,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The event was held in Philadelphia for the first time as a tribute to John's song "Philadelphia Freedom," which he wrote for King.
It worked out even better as a possible Sampras farewell.
"I drove by the Spectrum," Sampras said, happy to reflect. "That's where it all happened for me. I was number 60 in the world and went to number 12 and then I won the Open. Twelve years later, I've done all right."
But has he done everything? Sampras' wife, actress Bridgette Wilson, is expecting their first child in two months and family life is weighing heavily in Sampras' decision. King and John are already trying to set up a future World TeamTennis match between Jaden Agassi, the 1-year-old son of Agassi and his wife Steffi Graf, and the Sampras baby-to-be.
Sampras said he has made no plans for what his post-tennis life would be like, but he left the impression that changing diapers and rocking a baby to sleep would gladly take up his time.
And Sampras made two things very clear. He won't play a partial schedule or focus only on just the Grand Slams. It's a full schedule or nothing. And he won't come back when he does retire. It's going to be for good.
If Thursday night was it, at least Sampras had fun. He wore good-guy white, while Agassi, in bad-boy black, smoked a forehand off the shoulder of Sampras' partner in mixed doubles (Sampras and Ally Baker won 6-3) and drew some half-hearted boos.
There were enough aces on Sampras' serve, enough running forehands to leave a clear picture of what he was and sometimes still is.
"To end his career with a nice little package of accomplishments and being able to come back when a lot of people were writing him off, I can certainly understand why it can't get much better than that," said Agassi, who at 32 has no thoughts of retiring. "That being said, I know what a competitor he is and he's motivated by a lot more than a nice little ending. I know there's a lot more tennis in him, but I'm very supportive of whatever choice he makes.
"But I think if anyone has earned the right to call his shots at this stage, it's Pete."
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