Pete Sampras Quotes

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

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

In tennis, you can make a couple of mistakes and still win. Not in golf.

I'm not going to give in to the critics. I'm going to stop on my own terms, not on when someone else thinks I should.

It is nice to walk out on a court to have it packed.

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.

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.

You kind of live and die by the serve.

I don't look so much for tips. But when they interview a Nicklaus or a Palmer, I'm all ears. I listen to guys who have done it, been successful for years.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Tennis is seen all around the world; if I am home or anywhere in the country, United States, people will stare.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

When you come back strong, you are going to have little nagging things that you can usually play through, but every now and again, it is to the point where you can't play.

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.

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

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

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.

Anything can happen out there on any court.

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

The future is flying home. That's the immediate future. But long-distance future, I plan on being back. I'm not going to end my time here with that loss.

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

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

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

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

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

Media access to us is more regulated than in golf.

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

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.

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.