Words matter. These are the best Pete Sampras Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
When you retire you want to get as far away as possible from the game for a couple of years.
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 don’t know how I do it, I really don’t.
I hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly.
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 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.
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.
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.
I’ve got a great wife, a great life.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
All I cared about in tennis was winning.
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.
Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn’t changed in 10 years.
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 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.
You kind of live and die by the serve.
There’s always one shot that I can rely on when I’m not hitting the ball that well, is my serve.
I am going to hold serve the majority of the time. It is nice to have a little time to return serve.
