Posted on: October 11th, 2002
Stars should be allowed to just fade away
- petepageSource: 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; 25,000 fans, you and Andre, that's a pretty great way to go out."
So was Michael Jordan's title-winning jump shot at the buzzer in the 1998 National Basketball Association finals. But Jordan, despite giving retirement a test drive, could not stay away, and you have to wonder whether Sampras, a big basketball fan, is truly prepared, either. It is not as if he has another consuming professional goal outside the game.
"That innate ability and desire to compete is something really difficult to flush out of your system," Annacone said. "Maybe he's ready, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's romantic as hell, but I just don't know how you do it. When you know you can still beat the best players in the world. What I do know is that these guys - Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Pete - have earned the right to stop any way they want. People say it ruins their legacy if they keep playing and this and that, but it's their choice, and in my mind it doesn't ruin anything."
I used to disagree, used to crave the storybook finish for the athletes who inspired me. But having seen so many sports icons wrestle with the denouement of their careers, my view has evolved. They are public figures, but this is a private decision. The truth is, there is little chance they will be as good at anything else as they are at their games. Who are we to shame them into cutting the experience short for the sake of a story arc?
One of the year's most striking images was Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion who was once ranked No. 1, hopping on the regular shuttle bus from Manhattan to Flushing Meadows and then walking through the crowd, with no fuss and no security guards, to the locker room to prepare for a first-round match that she would lose, as she has lost so often in the past two seasons. It was as if she had come full circle: re-melding with the rank and file after years of special care and handling. Sanchez Vicario is a proud and tenacious Spaniard, and to accept these repeated ego blows, she must either really need the money or, more likely, enjoy the process and challenge - as must Michael Chang, who has played on long after he stopped being a legitimate threat.
"I told Pete, 'You're not going to find a substitute. Take it from me; it doesn't exist,'" said Annacone, a former top 10 player. "I told him, 'So as long as you feel motivated to do this, do it. And if you don't feel motivated, you've earned that, too. Go play golf. Go roll around the living room floor with the baby. Watch Laker games. You deserve it.' I just want him to make an informed decision, and he's good about that. He'll make one, and it will get my vote of support, and I hope it still involves holding a tennis racket."
Of recent tennis champions, Steffi Graf came closest to the Hollywood ending, retiring in 1999 soon after improbably winning the French Open and then reaching the final at Wimbledon. But as she had been struggling with injuries, retirement was a form of deliverance.
Annacone, back to devoting all his energy to running the U.S. Tennis Association's player development program after coming to Sampras' rescue this summer, says that, physically, Sampras has "three or four more years left."
At 31, Sampras appears to have improved his work habits and, despite his internal debate, he is training off-court and hitting twice a week in case the answer to the retirement question is no. I hope it is.
Watching Sampras' fluid, all-court game is a rare pleasure, and while he has struggled by his standards in the past two seasons, he has still been involved in an inordinate number of memorable matches, elevating less accomplished opponents.
If he does continue, it is clear that he cannot coast and succeed. The media might be in a forgiving mood, but he will not forgive himself too many early-round losses. He reached that career summit in New York by slogging through less floodlit tournaments, and though he does not need to play a full schedule, he needs to play an intelligent schedule.
"If he could just drive up to Wimbledon and play, he'd say great, but does he want to put in all that time and effort?" Annacone asked.
If Sampras decides that he does, it will be for all the right reasons. He has already won a record 14 Grand Slam singles titles, earned more than $40 million in prize money and proved that he can win another major under duress. All that is left is to use his gift for as long as possible: to enjoy the simple pleasure of the ball crisply meeting racket; to ride the adrenaline rush that only competition brings, and to hear the increasingly sympathetic rumblings from the crowds who know they might be seeing a true, dignified champion for the last time.
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