Pete Sampras Quotes About Tennis
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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.
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I've always led a pretty simple life, with few extravagances. The money in tennis never drove me.
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It's one-on-one out there, man. There ain't no hiding. I can't pass the ball.
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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.
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I'm not worried about the weekend, I'm worried about Saturday.
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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.
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I let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just go out and win tennis matches.
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All I cared about in tennis was winning.
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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.
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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.
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After I went through two years of not winning an event, what kept me going was winning one more major. Once I won that last U.S. Open, I spent the next six months trying to figure out what was next. Slowly my passion for the sport just vanished. I had nothing left to prove.
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Throughout my career, my mind rarely wandered, and I was never sidetracked by distractions, no matter what I was going through off the court.
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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.
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My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.
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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.
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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.
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I guess I get my strength from my legs, which are also important in tennis.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In tennis, you can make a couple of mistakes and still win. Not in golf.
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Tennis is seen all around the world; if I am home or anywhere in the country, United States, people will stare.
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Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn't changed in 10 years.
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Once the US Open is over in the States, mainstream America doesn't really follow tennis, unless you are a true tennis fan.
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Tennis obviously isn't as popular as baseball in the States.
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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.
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