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.

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.

You kind of live and die by the serve.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

I'm staying in shape, working out.

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 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.

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

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

Players aren't quite as intimidated by my name.

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

That's not what I'm looking forward to, just being home and just kind of not really sure kind of what to do with myself.

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.

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

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

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

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

Media access to us is more regulated than in golf.