Pete Sampras used to skip Davis Cup
Now he hopes the event revitalizes his fading
game
April 5, 2002
Davis Cup once was the square peg Pete Sampras couldn't cram into a career
of round openings. He didn't spend much time trying. Didn't want to.
Sampras was No. 1 in the world for most of the 1990s and wanted to stay there. He wanted the Slams. All Davis Cup did was sap him of energy and emotion he considered better directed toward other objectives.
Having abstained for fear of what Davis Cup could deny him, Sampras now hopes the competition will help him get those same things back.
This weekend's quarterfinal meeting against Spain at the Westside Tennis Club could potentially serve as a springboard for the remainder of Sampras' season.
Not often has his career required a jump-start, but Sampras is trying to keep periodic sputters from becoming a stall.
Last week, he lost to Chilean qualifier Fernando Gonz?ez in the third round of the Nasdaq-100 Open. Since winning a record 13th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2000, Sampras has played 24 events without another championship.
Next to the All England Club scheduling bimonthly grass-court events, Davis Cup is offering the best remedy.
Today, Sampras will play on his preferred surface for the first time on American soil. He enters his match against Alex Corretja with 99 career grass- court wins, all at European events.
His 100th grass win won't guarantee another title. What it can do is make sure the confidence gauge reads full again.
''It was a tough couple of weeks, but I try to put that behind me and look at the big picture of the rest of the year,'' Sampras said. "There is no reason to panic just as long as I am working hard. Hopefully, this week can get my confidence going. It's on grass, a surface that when I walk on it, I feel pretty much at home.''
Sampras has appeared in 27 grass-court events and won 10 of them. He has lost 17 of 116 career matches, most in the early part of his career. From 1993 to 2000, Richard Krajicek was the only player who beat Sampras at Wimbledon.
Regardless of what happens this weekend, Sampras will remain among the favorites at Wimbledon this summer. What he needs is to feel like the player to beat.
''If he has two real dominating matches and plays well, it's possible,'' U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said. "There are a lot more guys that can play well on grass and will threaten him, but it's a nice thing for him at this time of the year [after] struggling in Miami, just to get his confidence back and spur him on for the next couple of months. It's still obvious to me he's got a pure grass-court game.
"The grass obviously makes him feel real comfortable. When he serves and volleys [on grass], his awareness level is a little higher, which, quite honestly, I didn't see in Miami. I saw him serving and coming in and not really being that intense. He knows that on grass you have to come in and be ready to jump. That's helped him.''
That this weekend's matches are on grass is a bonus for Sampras. Other than playing the Spaniards on clay in Spain, any Davis Cup scenario would help him at this point.
Imagine if Sampras hadn't committed to Davis Cup this season. After losing in the Nasdaq-100, he would have spent the next six weeks training on clay in preparation for next month's Tennis Masters Series events in Rome, Hamburg, Germany, and ultimately the French Open, where chances of more disappointment would follow.
That's what happened last year after Andy Roddick beat Sampras in the third round on Key Biscayne. Sampras logged a 4-3 record on clay and made his earliest Wimbledon exit (fourth round) since 1991.
''For Pete, doing a bunch of training isn't what he's been known for over his career,'' former ATP pro and ESPN analyst MaliVai Washington said. "He's so talented that sometimes it seems whether he trains or not, his game is going to be there a lot of times. He knows the clay-court season isn't where he's going to win a lot of tournaments. He doesn't want to spend five or six weeks just playing tournaments and training for the clay.
"This is a chance for him to get on the grass, see what he can still
do. I guarantee you when he gets out here this weekend, Wimbledon is going
to pop into his head. He knows if he's going to win another major, most
likely it's going to be Wimbledon. And if he's going to win Wimbledon, it
really has to be this year.''
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