Wednesday, August 08, 2001
Sampras looks frisky in romp
Retirement talk quickly subsides after easy win
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Pete Sampras flashed his old form.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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MASON — Pete Sampras, tired of the past-his-prime speculation and retirement talk, was glad to see Boris Becker on Tuesday. It made Sampras feel younger.
“For a minute,” Sampras said. “The minute that I saw him.”
What was more significant were the 71 minutes he spent looking younger in a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Nicolas Lapentti in his Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati opener. Any questions about the thigh injury that caused him to skip a tournament last week in Montreal, or the conditioning issue that necessitated moving his match from Monday, were answered in his play.
“I'm 100 percent,” he said. “It takes three or four days to get acclimatized to the heat and the humidity. But the important thing is that I'm healthy and ready to go.”
Sampras, who turns 30 Sunday, said he usually uses Wimbledon to begin his momentum toward the U.S. Open, but that he is having to generate that now because of his fourth-round loss at Wimbledon.
“It's important to go in (to New York) with confidence, with an aura, with the guys knowing I'm playing well,” he said.
He may have to do that this week, because his management company accidentally entered him in the Washington, D.C., tournament next week instead of the Indianapolis event he normally plays. He may decide to skip the event, and he never playsthe week before the Open).
“Mistakes do happen,” Sampras said of the error.
He's not spending all his free time practicing; it's too hot for that. He said he often frequents different steakhouses in Cincinnati. Last weekend, he took his wife, actress Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Aronoff Center. Seinfeld invited them backstage afterward.
“He invited me to come have a cigar,” Sampras said. "I said, "I can't; I'm playing this week.' But I got to talk to him for quite a bit. The show was very funny.”
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