{"id":124410,"date":"2025-05-23T05:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T05:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/124410\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T05:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T05:17:12","slug":"what-pete-sampras-was-really-like-in-the-locker-room-and-how-he-felt-about-being-called-boring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/124410\/","title":{"rendered":"What Pete Sampras was really like in the locker room and how he felt about being called \u2018boring\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pete Sampras has gone down in tennis history thanks to his glittering career, with the American remaining one of the most respected names in the sport.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martina Navratilova thinks Sampras had the best serve ever<\/a>, which undoubtedly helped him win 14 Grand Slam titles.<\/p>\n

Sampras<\/a> also lost four Grand Slam finals, and reached number one in the ATP Tour<\/a> rankings, having won 64 career titles.<\/p>\n

Wimbledon was the biggest Grand Slam for Sampras<\/a>, a tournament he won on seven occasions, behind only the eight of Roger Federer.<\/p>\n

Those seven titles account for half of his Grand Slam titles, with Sampras also winning the US Open five times and the Australian Open twice.<\/p>\n

\"ThePhoto by Simon Bruty\/Anychance\/Getty ImagesWhat \u2018boring\u2019 Pete Sampras was really like in the locker room<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, however, the American experienced life off the court in a completely different manner, with BBC Sport<\/a> having carried out a deep dive on Sampras five years ago.<\/p>\n

It was written of him in 2020: \u201cBy those who know him well, Sampras is described as an introvert. He never craved stardom and never felt fully comfortable in the public eye.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras on-court argument that left Roger Federer feeling \u2018awkward\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOthers who shared locker rooms with him, including at Wimbledon in 2000, say he rarely mixed with his fellow players. They didn\u2019t see him as aloof, though. He wasn\u2019t disliked.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnflattering comments made about him \u2013 Sampras was often accused of being \u201cboring\u201d \u2013 did not register.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Former world number two Tommy Haas also shared his take on the icon, saying: \u201cHe was an idol for many players and many looked up to him, trying to see what he did as a champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would never eat anywhere near the facility. If you did see him he would only be with his team. He was quiet and kept himself to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThePhoto by Simon Bruty\/Anychance\/Getty ImagesWhat Paul Annacone once said Pete Sampras was \u2018incredible\u2019 at doing<\/p>\n

While it wasn\u2019t exactly a popular strategy for many, Sampras\u2019s introverted approach clearly worked wonders for his tennis career.<\/p>\n

He has gone down as one of the all-time greats, and undoubtedly has the respect of those both in and out of the sport.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Pete Sampras admitted one tournament was \u2018missing\u2019 from his trophy cabinet in 1995 but he then never even reached the final<\/a><\/p>\n

Helping him achieve plenty of success was Paul Annacone, who spent several years coaching the American great.<\/p>\n

Another respected figure in the tennis world, Annacone also coached Roger Federer and Tim Henman, and is currently working with ATP number four Taylor Fritz.<\/p>\n

\"2012Photo by Scott Barbour\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sharing his verdict on Sampras, the coach said: \u201cHe is pretty amazing mentally, he might be the most laser-focused person or athlete I\u2019ve ever been around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of putting his mind on a goal, and then being really clear about what he needs to do to give himself the best chance of achieving it, there is no one better.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my big coaching mantras is \u2018how well do you deal with adversity?\u2019 As an individual athlete, when you don\u2019t have teammates to help you, you\u2019re kind of naked out there.<\/p>\n\nTitles<\/strong><\/td>\nAustralian Open<\/strong><\/td>\nFrench Open<\/strong><\/td>\nWimbledon<\/strong><\/td>\nUS Open<\/strong><\/td>\nYears<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n14<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n1990\u20132002<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re having a bad day, you\u2019re hurt or you\u2019re sick, or you\u2019ve had a fight with your partner, or you\u2019ve lost your passport, whatever, you\u2019ve got to figure it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow good are you on your bad days? That\u2019s what defines you. Pete was incredible at that. He was able to manage those scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d just go out and play, having not hit a ball for two days, and walk on the court and play a match. That\u2019s kind of what he did all the way into the final.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he wins, Pete has a big smile on his face and he processes a lot in his mind. He\u2019s not like \u2018give me a big bottle of champagne and let\u2019s have tonnes of people round\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sampras won eight of his 14 majors with Annacone by his side between 1995 and 2000, with the latter recalling of the former\u2019s Wimbledon final success at the turn of the century: \u201cWe just sat and talked all night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an amazing glow about him, thinking about what he had accomplished and about what he had been able to do. It was a really great reflection of history \u2013 his history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Sampras has gone down in tennis history thanks to his glittering career, with the American remaining one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,40259,9082,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-124410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-paul-annacone","10":"tag-pete-sampras","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114555456324793520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}