Pete Sampras Quotes

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.

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

The only person that I have met, that I have ever been in awe of, is Eddie Vedder.

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.

You kind of live and die by the serve.

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

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.

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

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

All I cared about in tennis was winning.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I'm staying in shape, working out.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Players aren't quite as intimidated by my name.

Anything can happen out there on any court.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.