Behind the Gullikson Firing
Sampras in Crisis: Is Higueras the right fix?
February 28, 2002
If you're wondering what Pete Sampras is thinking these days, you're not alone.
Until very recently, Sampras, the man with a record 13 Grand Slam titles, was considered so predictable and methodical that the British tabloids long ago deemed him "boring." But in the past few months the calculable Sampras has done a disappearing act and the 30-year-old Sampras, in the twilight of his career and seemingly going through a mid-life crisis, has emerged.
Sampras has always insisted he has a disdain for change, but his quick-trigger, aggressive decision-making in recent months is somewhat shocking. In fact, Sampras followers will need to log a written scorecard to keep the evolving happenings straight.
The latest bombshell from Sampras is that he's terminated his short-lived coaching arrangement with old friend Tom Gullikson. Sampras announced he was hiring Gullikson, the twin brother of his former coach, the late Tim Gullikson, who succumbed to brain cancer in May 1996, back in December. That was the time he ended his six-year relationship with good friend Paul Annacone, citing he needed a new voice with new ideas to oversee the remainder of his career. Now he's hired on a different voice in taskmaster and strategic guru Jose Higueras, who only offers Sampras a part-time commitment because the former Spanish standout is keeping his coaching gig alive with the USTA's national training program.
According to Tommy Tucker, Higueras' longtime colleague at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage and Mark Woodforde's former coach, Sampras called Higueras just after the U.S.'s Davis Cup tie against the Slovak Republic had ended and told him that he has severed his relationship with Gullikson and was looking for someone to push him harder and give him a broader perspective. Higueras went to Sampras' house in L.A. this week and the two had a three-hour discussion, where Sampras' was apparently very impressed by Higueras vast knowledge of what occurs in between the lines.
"Pete's never had a real coach, and what I mean by a real coach is someone who is willing to make him work really hard on his on-court fitness and force him to make the technical adjustments that are necessary so he can improve his game,
"Tucker told tennisreporters.net. "Tim, Tom and Paul are all great guys who were perfect while Pete was winning, but he's not winning anymore and Tom won't climb all over him. He's having a mid-life crisis and knows he needs to get in top tennis shape and be ready to rock. With Jose, there's no bullshit. Pete knows how hard Jose works out his players. Jose will get him out there against the young Americans guys and have him do a lot of two on ones. He'll learn to use his feet better and finally improve his backhand."
Sampras' choice of Higueras is an interesting one and could indicate that the 13-time Grand Slam champion is planning a serious assault on winning the French Open, the only Grand Slam title that has eluded his grasp. Higueras coached Michael Chang to the French Open title in 1989, and has also worked with two-time Roland Garros champion Jim Courier.
Because Higueras will not be his full-time traveling coach and given the fact that he will only have a few weeks to prepare Sampras for the European clay after Key Biscayne, it's doubtful that Higueras will be able to coach Sampras to Parisian glory this year. It's not a secret that Sampras has been a disaster on clay since 1996, when he reached the semifinals. He can't hit a backhand winner from the baseline, which is a necessary part of any recent French Open champion's successful recipe.
"Jose can fix Pete's backhand," Tucker said. "Part of Pete's problems are technical and part are where he goes with ball. Because he's always been such a tremendous athlete, Pete's never had to learn to use the whole court and really see his possibilities. Jose will help him with that. But there's not enough time to expect that he can help him win the French this year. But I guarantee this ?he'll be much better prepared and will make a better showing."
It wasn't only coaching that Sampras was fiddling around with in December.
For about a three-day period he was terminating his involvement with management
company AMG, but then returned to the fold when he was told former player
Jill Smoller would look after his day-to-day interests instead of pal Jeff
Schwartz.
And let's not forget that Sampras walked away from a longtime partnership
with Nike instead of staying at the negotiating table and ironing out a
deal.
It was only a few weeks ago at the Davis Cup first-round tie in Oklahoma
City that Sampras was waxing poetic about the advantages of working with
"good friend" Gullikson. He even smiled about the "few eerie
moments" the deja vu experience of working with Tom after having been
with Tim for so long back in the 90's. The truth is, however, except for
the time they traveled to Australia together in January, Sampras didn't
really have much opportunity to explore the
coaching relationship with Gullikson before firing his friend.
The unfortunate thing is this is not the first time that Sampras has put Gullikson in an awkward and difficult position. In the July 1999 Davis Cup semifinal between the U.S. and Australia held in Boston to commemorate the team competition's 100th Anniversary Sampras made a sudden decision to play the tie, but only as a doubles participant so as not to take a singles berth from players who had been supporting the American Davis Cup effort all year long. Gullikson's hands were tied. The USTA wanted Sampras on board any way he wanted to be, but being the captain, it should have been Gullikson's call as to whether Sampras played singles and/or doubles. It turned out that the U.S. went down in flames in that semifinal and it was Gullikson who took the heat, losing his captaincy to John McEnroe a couple of months later.
While Gullikson is likely to land on his feet and be signed up quickly by another player, you have to wonder what move Sampras will make next.
"Pete knows that at (almost) 31, this is the last stage of his career and is his last shot," Tucker said. "He needs to leave the sport with his head held high and be confident that he has the right guy backing him up."
Whether it will be Higueras in Pete's corner by midsummer is anyone's guess.
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