Posted on: November 29th, 2007
Sampras returns ... but just for fun
- petepageEx-champion shows he can still play but won't mount a comeback
By Melissa Isaacson, Chicago Tribune
November 29, 2007 - Astute readers of the sports section and watchers of "SportsCenter" may have caught it. And of those who did, some may even have taken it seriously.
Pete Sampras, 36, who won his 14th Grand Slam title five years ago, then retired from the pro tour, defeated No. 1 Roger Federer in the final of their three-match Asian exhibition series Saturday 7-6, 6-4. Federer won their first two matches 6-4, 6-3 and 7-6, 7-6.
But Sampras beat Federer.
Sampras plays Todd Martin on Saturday night at the UIC Pavillion in the FedEx Tennis Shootout, and if you think a little less hair and two kids has taken any of the competitive fire from the seven-time Wimbledon champ, well, as they say, think again.
"I had a moment walking off the court when I thought I can still play today," Sampras said by phone from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., a day after returning from China.
There are those who think he should — that, ironically, tennis is in desperate need of the kind of drama that the best and last serve-and-volleyer in the game could provide. For those who may have forgotten, Sampras' greatness was often mistaken for dullness, especially when he was battling longtime rival Andre Agassi.
Federer, who at 26 already has won 12 Grand Slam titles and deserves to be called one of the all-time greats, is smarter than that.
"I think if [Sampras] was still playing today, he would be a top-five player," Federer said.
For Sampras, who held the No. 1 ranking for a record 286 weeks and finished on top a record six consecutive years, fatherhood and golf were enough to keep him going for 2 1/2 years after he retired in 2002.
"I put on some weight, I saw a picture of myself and that was the pivotal moment," he said. "I was like, 'What happened to me?' My face looked full. I said, 'I don't want to be one of these athletes who puts on 30 pounds,' so I changed my eating habits, started played basketball twice a week."
And he began playing tennis again. Seriously.
"If I have a day when I don't play tennis, I have no focus, I'm a little restless, a little bored; my day is too open," Sampras said. "That's why I started playing, just to give me a little balance."
It also gave him a little incentive to play competitively again. Martin saw Sampras' victory over Federer and knows firsthand Sampras' level of play, having lost to him in three meetings in the Outback Championship Series, a top-level 30-or-older circuit promoted by their former contemporary, Jim Courier.
"It was plainly obvious how well he was playing. ... The type of play that would still be competitive with those who play the game at the highest level," said Martin, who played at Northwestern and reached the 1999 U.S. Open and '94 Australian Open finals.
"Pete has this weapon that honestly is probably in the top five of all serves right now. His serve is unchanged from when he was the best."
Again, the Federer match was an exhibition, and Sampras generously downplayed his victory, allowing that Federer had come off a long season, which culminated in a Masters victory. But Sampras also said that, while slower on court, he was hitting "better than ever" thanks to the new technology in rackets, and his famous serve indeed was clocked at 130 m.p.h.
"It was very difficult to read," Federer said.
And this is why it would be fun to watch the two battle, even in just one more Wimbledon for Sampras. Not because he hits his serve harder. Andy Roddick can blast away at 130-plus. So can Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic.
Never heard of them? They're the 18th- and 22nd-ranked players in the world, both from Croatia, but only a tennis junkie could pick them out of the pack. The same could possibly be said of Roddick, for all he has done to challenge Federer. "As hard as Andy Roddick serves, it's not as accurate [as Sampras']," Martin said, "and I think Federer has a read on it, so Andy has to play loads more points."
Sampras also says Roddick is "at a level below Roger" and calls the contention that Federer's domination is hurting the men's game "very honest and very fair. ... It's hard to watch something when you know the result."
Added Sampras: "Roger is already a legend, which is great for the sport, but to transcend it from a media standpoint, he needs Roddick or someone to push him. It's basically one guy breaking all my records."
But to come back to the tour at 36, even for just one more Wimbledon, Sampras draws the line.
"I could do that," he said. "But people who really know the sport and know Wimbledon [know] it's a lot of work. Sure, if you told me I would train for two weeks and play Federer in the final of Wimbledon, I'd probably do the work. But there are a lot of great players I haven't seen play before, and there's not a whole lot to gain, probably a little more to lose."
Sampras does not deny that he still has a strong desire to compete.
"I'm not going do it for the limelight; I'm going to do it for the win," he said. "But I feel I've won enough, I have nothing to prove to anyone. In a romantic sense, it might be a big shot in the arm of the sport, and it would make news, but it's not worth it for me."
Too bad for us. And for tennis. But for Sampras, it is somehow comforting and fitting that a gentleman like Federer is poised to break his records.
"I'm at peace with what I did in the '90s," Sampras said. "Would I want my [records] to stand forever? I'd be lying if said no, but there's nothing I can do about it, and if someone has to beat it, I'd like to see Roger do it, someone who is what I was about, not horns and whistles and all that other stuff that some people in this country want."
Still, beating Federer reminded him how much he loved it.
"I believe people come back for different reasons, some for the limelight, some for the money," Sampras said. "I always played to win. Playing [Federer] definitely magnified that, and I'll always have that moment here and there when I wonder, but it goes away quickly. That day-to-day grind, I don't have it in me anymore. I had my time."
Source: Chicago Tribune
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