Top 89 Quotes & Sayings by Pete Sampras
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Pete Sampras.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
People wrote me off, but I believed in myself. I got the confidence back, and it grew and grew. I won my first major and my last at the place that changed my life.
There's always one shot that I can rely on when I'm not hitting the ball that well, is my serve.
Tennis is seen all around the world; if I am home or anywhere in the country, United States, people will stare.
I am going to hold serve the majority of the time. It is nice to have a little time to return serve.
You kind of live and die by the serve.
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 never wanted to be the great guy or the colorful guy or the interesting guy. I wanted to be the guy who won titles.
I've got a great wife, a great life.
I loved Wimbledon and what it meant, but the surface felt uncomfortable. I just didn't like it, I was a hard-court guy, a Californian kid.
The difference of great players is at a certain point in a match they raise their level of play and maintain it. Lesser players play great for a set, but then less.
I don't look at myself as a historical icon, but the reality of it is, yeah, I am playing for history now.
When you retire you want to get as far away as possible from the game for a couple of years.
For so long people have just taken what I do for granted. It is not easy to do year-in, year-out, to win Grand Slams and be No. 1.
I'm staying in shape, working out.
I could be a jerk and get a lot more publicity, but that's not who I am.
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.
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.
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 let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just go out and win tennis matches.
People know me. I'm not going to produce any cartwheels out there. I'm not going to belong on Comedy Central. I'll always be a tennis player, not a celebrity.
All I cared about in tennis was winning.
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.
Retirement is a work in progress. I try to figure out my day, and what I know about myself is that I need structure.
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.
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.
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.
It is nice to walk out on a court to have it packed.
When I committed to playing a little tennis in some exhibitions, it was the best thing for me. It got me in shape. It got me out of the house. It got me doing something I love to do.
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.
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'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 hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly.
Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn't changed in 10 years.
I don't know how I do it, I really don't.
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.
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.
What I've done in the game is always going to stick, no matter what happens.
Players aren't quite as intimidated by my name.
I am here for the goal, and the goal is to try to do it again.
I didn't have a big fat Greek wedding, but I have a lot of fat Greek friends.
With this ranking system, the more you play, the better off you are.
Anybody who has played sports and says they have never choked is lying to you.
I feel much more respected in Europe than I do in the States from the press and from the people. Americans expect me to win every match I play.
Once the fifth set comes, it's a matter of nerves.
As long as I feel like I can win majors and contend, I'll continue to play.
Throughout my career, my mind rarely wandered, and I was never sidetracked by distractions, no matter what I was going through off the court.
The only person that I have met, that I have ever been in awe of, is Eddie Vedder.
My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. If I can match them for 10 years, I'd be in their company. They were class acts. That's what I'd like to be.
I'm not worried about the weekend, I'm worried about Saturday.
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 don`t know why, but I love the dog eat dog nature of tennis. It`s real, it`s brutal and there`s no hiding place - it's like a one to one street fight. I love the intensity that comes with knowing you walk off court either a winner or a loser. It`s daunting but very exciting. There is no one to blame except yourself, no one cares who comes second.
Choking is being in a position to win, and then experiencing some critical failure of nerve or spirit. That never happened to me. And I can't help but think it was because I was never afraid to lose.
When you go through certain moments of your career and you're struggling, it just takes time. Time heals, when you're a little bit down.
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.
Baseball is America's pastime, and that record is absolutely huge in the States.
It's one-on-one out there, man. There ain't no hiding. I can't pass the ball.
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.
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.
Success is walking out of here with the title, and anything less is not good enough in my book.
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.
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