Pete Sampras Quotes

I think the image of golfers is terrific, and rightly so.

I don't look at myself as a historical icon, but the reality of it is, yeah, I am playing for history now.

The way I look at the top five, (Rod) Laver, (Roger) Federer, myself, Borg and (Ivan) Lendl. I think those five guys dominated their generations better than anyone. Maybe Roger will dominate better than any one of the other four. Maybe I put Andre (Agassi) as kind of six through 10 with, you know, (John) McEnroe and (Jimmy) Connors, kind of those guys. That's kind of how I see it.

I am here for the goal, and the goal is to try to do it again.

Winning is about taking your opponent's heart out and squeezing it until all the blood has come out, even the very last drop. There are no prizes for a funny loser.

I may be a step slower than I was before reaching 30, but I'm doing all the right things. I guess there are some guys who would take it easy in the latter part of their careers, but I'm stepping it up.

Baseball is America's pastime, and that record is absolutely huge in the States.

Once the US Open is over in the States, mainstream America doesn't really follow tennis, unless you are a true tennis fan.

It's one-on-one out there, man. There ain't no hiding. I can't pass the ball.

Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn't changed in 10 years.

I'm enjoying my retirement, enjoying my life. I have two kids and a lot of my time is spent chasing these two animals.

By putting pressure on myself to develop a great game, I had less pressure to win. These days, I tell kids that the way I grew up, it wasn't about winning. It was about playing well, about playing the "right" way. That approach helped me enjoy the game and develop mine to its maximum potential.

My serve was there, everything was just clicking. Those are the days you dream about, especially in a final.

I'm maybe not quite as sharp as I used to be.

I'm staying in shape, working out.

Tennis obviously isn't as popular as baseball in the States.

When I tied the record five years in a row, even over in Europe, it wasn't really talked about. It is disap-pointing because it is one of the toughest things to do in sports.

I'm not worried about the weekend, I'm worried about Saturday.

There's always one shot that I can rely on when I'm not hitting the ball that well, is my serve.

Media access to us is more regulated than in golf.

I still feel like my game is very dangerous. I always will have my serve.

What I've done in the game is always going to stick, no matter what happens.

After I went through two years of not winning an event, what kept me going was winning one more major. Once I won that last U.S. Open, I spent the next six months trying to figure out what was next. Slowly my passion for the sport just vanished. I had nothing left to prove.

I could be a jerk and get a lot more publicity, but that's not who I am.

I hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly.

A couple hundred people around, and I'm shaking.

As long as I feel like I can win majors and contend, I'll continue to play.

I did it my way, and I have no regrets when I look back on my career that it was just a big focus for me.

I admire the way golfers handle themselves. But tennis players are a lot younger, as a rule. There aren't many teenagers on the golf tour.

I've worked hard my whole life, since I was a little kid. But now it's a point in my life now where I can just enjoy it, but at the same time I still need to work.

Success is walking out of here with the title, and anything less is not good enough in my book.

I've been into golf, trying to get into the gym to stay somewhat fit. I've got two boys now, they're active kids.

I made it look so easy on court all those years. No one realized how hard I had to work. No one realized how much I had to put into it. They underestimated my intensity.

The way I hold the club, I've got my hand way over, like I'm driving a motorcycle. My Kawasaki grip.

Retirement is a work in progress. I try to figure out my day, and what I know about myself is that I need structure.

When you retire you want to get as far away as possible from the game for a couple of years.

Andre always seemed bent on asserting his individuality and independence, while I tried to submerge my individuality and accepted the loss of some personal freedoms. Andre was Joe Frazier to my Muhammad Ali, although the personalities were kind of flipped around because Andre was the showman and I was the craftsman. Wherever you lived, we were your neighbors: I was the nice, quiet kid next door on one side, and Andre was the rebellious teenager on the other.

I guess I get my strength from my legs, which are also important in tennis.

Anybody who has played sports and says they have never choked is lying to you.

Where I fall down is my short game. I don't practice enough, and when I have to take a half swing from 50 yards out, that's trouble.

Anything can happen out there on any court.

If I win and play well, then the ranking will take care of itself. Defending points is really not a problem. Just go out and play and not worry about it.

I can't just wake up and watch TV and do nothing. I need a day off working out, seeing the wife, play a little golf, see my kids.

A champion is suppose to hate to lose, and it wasn't like I was ever crazy about the idea. But I learned to deal with losing without having my spirit or confidence broken, which would help immensely over time, not just in the big picture but even in specific matches when I found myself in a jam. Fear of losing is a terrible thing.

In tennis, you can make a couple of mistakes and still win. Not in golf. I played three rounds in that Tahoe event, and I was drained. Mentally, not physically.

I let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just go out and win tennis matches.

If Davis Cup was a little bit less or once every two years, I would be more inclined to play. But the way it is now, it is too much tennis for me.

I don't think it really matters, who plays first. Whatever they do, they do.

Throughout my career, my mind rarely wandered, and I was never sidetracked by distractions, no matter what I was going through off the court.

I want to end my career on my terms, not on what people think I should do.

There is no doubt about how hard it is to stay on top in any sport, but to do it in an individual sport for the majority of your career, it is not easy.

When you struggle winning matches all year and you don't really get into a groove or rhythm, you just can't expect to just come in here and have it click.

There should be more of an off-season in the game. I think you need to have less tournaments, more of a break at the end of the year so guys can recover.

People watched the Masters. It was a huge event. It was at The Garden. Now that it is over here in Europe, it has lost a little bit of popularity in the States.

Once the fifth set comes, it's a matter of nerves.

I've always led a pretty simple life, with few extravagances. The money in tennis never drove me.

All I cared about in tennis was winning.

With this ranking system, the more you play, the better off you are.

It's not easy to retire at 31. In one respect I was glad I was done. But after a few years of having fun, I got a little restless. When you're 33, 34, and you don't have a focus, you can get kind of lost. As a man, you feel a little bit unfulfilled.

It's not my place to tell you whom to vote for, to take any political stand, to tell you what religion to believe in. I'm an athlete. I can influence certain things, but when I see other athletes and celebrities telling you whom to vote for, I actually get a bit offended.

Andre Agassi was my rival in the '90s, and I think as we got older we sort of transcended the game. He was probably the best player I ever played over my career. There's a list of players that were tough, but Andre, certainly, he was the most unique.

I didn't have a big fat Greek wedding, but I have a lot of fat Greek friends.

Players aren't quite as intimidated by my name.