Pete Sampras is an American former tennis player. Regarded by many as one of the greatest in the history of the sport. A right-handed player with a single-handed backhand, his precise and powerful serve earned him the nickname ‘Pistol Pete’. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating rival Andre Agassi in the final. Sampras held the all-time record of seven Wimbledon Men’s Singles titles with William Renshaw until 2017 when Roger Federer won his 8th title. Sampras also won five US Open titles, a joint Open-era record shared by Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors, and two Australian Open titles. His 14 Grand Slam titles were a record, surpassed when Federer won his 15th Grand Slam title at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and later also by Rafael Nadal at the 2017 French Open and Novak Djokovic at the 2019 Australian Open. Sampras won 64 singles titles. He first reached world No.1 in 1993, and held that position for a total of 286 weeks (second behind Federer 310 weeks as No. 1 player), including a record six consecutive year-end No. 1 rankings from 1993 to 1998. In 2007, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. May these Pete Sampras Quotes On Success inspire you to take action so that you may live your dreams.
1. “Success is walking out of here with the title, and anything less is not good enough in my book.” Pete Sampras
2. “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.” Pete Sampras
3. “I hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly.” Pete Sampras
4. “Once the fifth set comes, it’s a matter of nerves.” Pete Sampras
5. “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.” Pete Sampras
6. “Retirement is a work in progress. I try to figure out my day, and what I know about myself is that I need structure.” Pete Sampras
7. “I am here for the goal, and the goal is to try to do it again.” Pete Sampras
8. “I’ve got a great wife, a great life.” Pete Sampras
9. “With this ranking system, the more you play, the better off you are.” Pete Sampras
10. “There are no prizes for a funny loser.” Pete Sampras
11. “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.” Pete Sampras
12. “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.” Pete Sampras
13. “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.” Pete Sampras
14. “Tennis is seen all around the world; if I am home or anywhere in the country, United States, people will stare.” Pete Sampras
15. “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.” Pete Sampras
16. “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.” Pete Sampras
17. “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.” Pete Sampras
18. “I may be a step slower than I was before reaching 30, but I’m doing all the right things. I guess there are some guys who would take it easy in the latter part of their careers, but I’m stepping it up.” Pete Sampras
19. “As long as I feel like I can win majors and contend, I’ll continue to play.” Pete Sampras
20. “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.” Pete Sampras
21. “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.”
22. “Media access to us is more regulated than in golf.” Pete Sampras
23. “I don’t look at myself as a historical icon, but the reality of it is, yeah, I am playing for history now.” Pete Sampras
24. “A champion is supposed 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.” Pete Sampras
25. “When you retire you want to get as far away as possible from the game for a couple of years.” Pete Sampras
26. “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.” Pete Sampras
27. “Where I fall down is my short game. I don’t practice enough, and when I have to take a half swing from 50 yards out, that’s trouble.” Pete Sampras
28. “There’s always one shot that I can rely on when I’m not hitting the ball that well, is my serve.” Pete Sampras
29. “You kind of live and die by the serve.” Pete Sampras
30. “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.” Pete Sampras
31. “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.” Pete Sampras
32. “I am going to hold serve the majority of the time. It is nice to have a little time to return serve.” Pete Sampras
33. “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.” Pete Sampras
34. “My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.” Pete Sampras
35. “I’ve always led a pretty simple life, with few extravagances. The money in tennis never drove me.“ Pete Sampras
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