【Tennis】7月號特集：Sampras Speaks (一)
http://www.tennis.com/ProGame/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=72956&itype=1296
PRO GAME: Pete Sampras: Made Man (extended version)
Shortly after winning the 2002 U.S. Open, Pete Sampras happily dropped off
the game’s radar screen. No, he’s not making a comeback. But he’s ready
to talk about those last agonizing and, ultimately, triumphant moments of
his career, as well as life beyond the sport he dominated.
By Peter Bodo
From the July 2004 issue of TENNIS Magazine
When Pete Sampras opened the heavy wooden door of his home in Los Angeles’
Benedict Canyon, I was pleasantly surprised. He hadn’t, as I’d heard, put
on 20 pounds. Nor did he look like a man who’d been sleeping 14 hours a day
or neglecting basic grooming elements like trimming the toenails poking out
of his shower slippers.
If anything , Sampras, 32 , looked a lot like the lanky , happy-go-lucky
19-year-old who rocked tennis in 1990 when he won the U.S. Open with a game
that appeared to be crafted in Grand Slam heaven. Same conspiratorial grin.
Same slouching presence. Same jock uniform: baggy black shorts and loose
white T-shirt. Different life.
Sampras’ ranch-style home, once an elegant repository of heavy, masculine
furniture and replicas of his most prized trophies, reflects the changes in
his life. Sampras and his wife, actress Bridgette Wilson, have a 2-year-old
son, Christian . They were living out of boxes while waiting for the
renovations to be completed on new home nearby.
Plopping down into a plush white sofa, Sampras looked utterly comfortable,
and fully realized. The great battle was over. He has become what he spent
most of his early life wanting to be—a champion for the ages. He holds a
record 14 Grand Slam singles titles and finished No. 1 in the world for an
unprecedented six consecutive years.
Sampras hasn’t talked very much since that New York evening in September
of 2002, when he held aloft a newly earned Grand Slam trophy for the last
time. This day, though, he opened up with his familiar combination of
modesty, caution, and pride.
This is a man who, accomplishments notwithstanding, has a marked aversion
to taking stands, to giving what he repeatedly calls “unsolicited advice,”
to making pronouncements, even to using the word “I”—he prefers using
the second person, even when talking about his own opinions and feelings.
If there’s one true thing about Sampras, it’s the essence of his own
charmingly modest assertion: “I’m just an athlete. I never wanted to walk
around like I was more important than anyone else.”
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