Posted on: April 06th, 2006
Where are They Now?Pete Sampras
- petepageRetirement, It’s a Dirty Job
By Peter Dopkin
For arguably the greatest player of all time, stepping away from the game might have been a difficult thing to do. But for Pete Sampras, who rode intothe sunset after winning his 14th and final Grand Slam title, it was also the right thing to do. Waiting for him on the other side was rest and relaxation—well, that and an endless supply of dirty diapers. Like most fathers of young children, your career accolades don’t mean very much when a soiled 1-year-old comes acallin’.
However, when you’ve earned over $43 million in prize money, you’re in your mid-thirties, your athletic and a perfectionist, what better activity is there to take up than golf? You can never be good enough and there is always something to work on. Plus, if greens fees aren’t an issue, it is a nice way to spend a day (especially if you’ve been playing tennis non-stop since you were seven). Sampras hits the links four or five times a week, and has managed to get his handicap into the single digits (although we won’t disclose how low . . . it can fluctuate from time to time). Also, with his newfound time off, Sampras was able to take vacations, and travel without his racquets.
After a few years of golf and a little bit of poker, Sampras was looking for something a little more rewarding. It’s been unsatisfying for the 34-year-old Sampras to spend his time as if he were someone who retired after working for 50 years. So he has started to get involved in World TeamTennis, joined a group of investors (which includes the publishers of TENNIS and SMASH Magazines) in keeping the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, and he’s playing an exhibition in Houston.
“I think it is more than just playing an exhibition,” Sampras says. “I think what I needed was a sense of focus, and a sense of preparation in my everyday life. You get to a point when you’re not doing anything, you’re playing golf, and you feel a little bit empty. Deciding to play and making that commitment was the biggest hurdle. Once I did that the next day I started going for a run, hitting a few balls, and I think that was what I was looking for. It’s not necessarily that I was dying to be competitive and beat these guys, whoever I’m playing. I think it was more about a daily life that gave me more focus than I’ve had.”
Sampras added, “When I’m playing, I have no idea what that is going to feel like. I’m playing in two weeks in Houston and I’m playing this summer, and I don’t know how that’s going to be. I could dread it. I could love it. I have no idea. But I think the preparation and the focus, and waking up in the morning and having some sort of structure in a day is something that I really needed that I had all my life—and cold turkey, I left it. So it’s not easy letting all that go. It was fun at first for a couple of years. But after those two years I was ready to do more than play some golf and play some cards. I’m still a young guy and every man needs a sense of purpose. And tennis is something that I love, and it is very easy for me to get back into it.
“I’m not killing myself, but I hop in the gym three, four days a week, I hit a few balls three, four days a week. I can still go out and play golf and have some fun. But at the end of the day you want to feel as though you accomplished something, you did something. . . . I’ve worked my whole life and I’m looking forward to getting on the road a little bit and doing something that I was pretty good at.”
It is sometimes hard to imagine athletes as anything other than athletes, especially the greatest ones. It’s hard to believe that Sampras has had a full career, then had his fun in retirement—and he’s still only 34 years old. But this California native is ready to fill the void left by uncertainty, and make his mark in his new life. Whether that’s on the court, in business ventures, or finally reaching the end of the diaper trail, if Sampras is half as successful as he was on the court, he’ll be one lucky man.
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