Sampras won't throw in the towel as he chases Rocket

PETE SAMPRAS' first coach, Pete Fischer, always used to tell him: "Remember, your competition is Laver." That was Laver as in Rod, the 'Rockhampton Rocket', Sampras's idol, because of what he achieved and the level-headed, no-fuss way in which he achieved it.

Laver is one of only four players to have won all four Grand Slam titles and, more impressively, one of only two (Don Budge was the other) to have landed the quartet in one calendar year.

Although Sampras has already overhauled Laver's career return of 47 titles (the world No 1 is on 54), he has yet to win the French Open and remains one short of the great Australian's 11 Grand Slam titles and two short of Roy Emerson's record 12. These feats matter dearly to Sampras. First matching, then surpassing them. "There's a lot of things out there I want to achieve," he says."The Grand Slam record is something I want. I'll do everything I can in the next four to five years to get it." Not everyone agrees he can. But, when Sampras claimed his fourth Wimbledon title in five years 12 months ago, it seemed like one more overwhelming victory (he dropped his serve just twice in 24 sets during the whole championship) in an era of dominance that stretched back to US President Bill Clinton's first term of office and forward beyond the vanishing point of a new millennium. He finished 1997 as the world No 1 for the fifth successive year and, by the time Marcelo Rios briefly nudged him from the top in March this year, Sampras had reigned for 102 consecutive weeks. In the absence of any obvious challenger from the Top 10, it was looking increasingly that only history was capable of providing the American with any competition. A group of 100 past and current players, tournament directors and journalists celebrated the ATP's 25th anniversary by voting Sampras the best player of the last quarter of a century. The best ever? "I'm never going to sit here and tell you I'm the best ever," he says with genuine humility, "but the game has changed. I was talking to Laver about his first Slam wins and he said there really wasn't much competition. "I'm not taking away anything from that era of tennis but now it's really anyone's ball game." For so long it was not, of course. It was Pete's ball game. He played on the same court as his opponents but he was operating in a different league. He was men's tennis in the Nineties, the Michael Jordan of the baseline, a man responsible through sheer talent and personal misfortune for some of the most compelling moments in the sport - throwing up from dehydration on court during the fifth-set tiebreaker against Alex Corretja at the 1996 US Open before saving a match point and going on to win; crying on court at the 1995 Australian Open for his dying coach Tim Gullikson and then fighting back from two sets down to defeat Jim Courier; collapsing with cramps during the 1995 Davis Cup in Moscow before coming back to win every point for the US in a famous victory. Yet this remarkable man is still perceived by some as boring. Then again even Yesterday would have got boring after five years at No 1. As he begins his bid for a fifth Wimbledon title in six years, he is confronting new realities. That it really is, as he says, anybody's game. That he has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals of the last three Grand Slams (he was eliminated in the second round at the French) and not made it past the third round of four Super Nines this year. That he lost his No 1 ranking in March and regained it only by default (injury forced Rios out of the game for a month). That, for once in his life, there are doubters. In the locker room, some of his peers sense distraction and disenchantment. "Pete's been there a long time and he's facing the situation where he's lost interest in the sport," says former French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Sampras is bullish in response but he admits to feeling "burned out" after not taking a break at the end of last year and agrees that it can be difficult to maintain the hunger outside the Slams. "I didn't feel like I had much of an off-season last year. I've learned that as I get older I need to get away from the game, have some time off so that when I get back I'm passionate about what I'm trying to do," he says. "I've been pretty consistent through the years. To do that you need to be fresh in your mind and body and passionate about playing. Sure 10 years is a long time but I still enjoy playing and competing. If you want to be the best in tennis, it has to be your life. I still want it to be. "Through my career, I have gone through lulls but I'm capable and confident of getting through this. I know deep down I have the game and heart to come back. This season hasn't been that great but this is the time to come through and I can't think of a better time to recapture my year than with two weeks at Wimbledon." No better time and probably no better place. If Sampras is at anything like his best, he is well nigh unbeatable on grass. He could overtake Emerson at the All England alone. Sampras trots out a list of potential threats to his title - Richard Krajicek, Pat Rafter, a fit Greg Rusedski, Mark Philippoussis, Tim Henman - but must know as he names each one that unless they are hot and he is not then he must win. If Sampras fails to make an impression at Wimbledon, the place he calls "home", the increasingly vocal group who say that the American may never win another Grand Slam event will feel emboldened although they will be far from vindicated. He insists he feels under no pressure to deliver. "I'll go to Wimbledon with the same attitude and preparation but if I go this year without winning a Slam then so be it."

Copyright 1998
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