For years, a visit to Centre Court was part of Pete Sampras’s ritual leading up to Wimbledon. He would stand in the shadows, soak up the silence and anticipate the applause to come. The cheering followed each of the seven titles he won at the All England Club from 1993 to 2000, a span during which he lost just one match.
But there was no Centre Court pilgrimage last week by Sampras, and there will be no hurrahs for him this week. With the tournament beginning on Monday, the king of grass is absent for the first time in 15 years.
Sampras hasn’t played a match since winning his 14th Grand Slam title last September by beating Andre Agassi in the final of the US Open. At 31, Sampras has stopped short of announcing his retirement but says he’s 95% certain he won’t play again.
He’ll be missed — especially at Wimbledon.
”You don’t win a tournament again and again without there being some meat to the bone,” Agassi said. ”It’s not like it’s smoke and mirrors. You have to go out there and earn it.
”If you’ve done that a few times, there’s a heck of a chance that the environment itself really lends to your game in a certain way that makes you pretty darn tough to beat. Pete at Wimbledon is a great example.”
Before winning the US Open last summer, Sampras went more than two years without a Grand Slam title. The slump included upset losses at Wimbledon to two Swiss players, Roger Federer in the fourth round in 2001 and George Bastl in the second round in 2002.
Because of the less than regal sendoff last year for Sampras — a defeat against a player ranked 145th on tiny Court 2 — it was widely anticipated that he would make another try at Wimbledon. But for now, at least, Sampras says he lacks the motivation to train as necessary to play another major.
”Like I said when he was going through his slump,” Agassi said, ”this guy has earned the right and deserves the respect of playing the game on his terms. If he wants to get out there and continue losing and losing and losing, that’s his choice. Then he goes and wins the Open.
”Now he’s choosing not to play, and I sort of have the same feeling about it. He has earned the right and deserves the respect not to play this game on his terms.”
Change at Wimbledon is regarded with the same disdain as rain, but the transition to the post-Sampras era should be entertaining.
In his absence, the list of title candidates is longer than usual and includes Agassi and Tim Henman, two perennial contenders who never beat Sampras at Wimbledon.
Agassi won the first of his eight major championships at the All England Club in 1992 but has reached only one final since, losing in 1999 to — you guessed it — Sampras.
Henman, seeking to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, has reached the semifinals four of the past five years but lost every time, twice to Sampras.
Other contenders include top-seeded defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, the erratic Federer and American Andy Roddick, who hired Brad Gilbert as his coach after the French Open and then won his first career grass-court title at Queen’s Club.
A first time champion is a possibility, especially given the recent unpredictability of the men’s game. Grand Slam finalists since the beginning of last year have included Thomas Johansson, Rainer Schuettler, David Nalbandian and Martin Verkerk.
A surprise is less likely on the women’s side, where the Williams sisters remain the players to beat, even though both were beaten at the French Open. Venus won Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001, and Serena won in 2002.
The most likely candidates to prevent an all-Williams final are Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, who staged an all-Belgian final at Paris two weeks ago. Henin-Hardenne ended Serena Williams’s one year domination of major events by beating her in the French Open semifinals, then defeated Clijsters in the final for her first Grand Slam title. – Sapa-AP