Pete Sampras Quotes

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I am going to hold serve the majority of the time. It is nice to have a little time to return serve.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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 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.

Players aren't quite as intimidated by my name.

I've got a great wife, a great life.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.

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

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.

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

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

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.