Pete Sampras will leave the game as he played it, a modest, easy, all-time great. You see all kinds of retirements in sports, and most of them are emotionally awkward and difficult to watch. Theres the weeping news conference. Theres the endless, ceremonial youll-miss-me tour. Theres the stutter-step retirement, in which the athlete retires only to unreturned when he craves attention or needs the money. Almost no one retires well.
But Sampras is retiring in graceful self-control. He plans to announce his retirement in a ceremony at the U. S. Open tonight, and a lot of people wonder why Sampras wont make more of the event, allow himself to be more elaborately feted. The simple answer is that Sampras doesnt need it. He doesnt need a last jolt of adrenaline or dose of adulation. He doesnt need a prolonged ego bath. He doesnt need more money, or trophies. He doesnt need any of the things that other athletes find it so hard to walk away from. Hes content.
That contentment is a kind of achievement in its own right. Sampras has made himself invisible since his victory in last years U. S. Open. His 14th major championship now stands as the last match of his career, the perfect finish.
Hes never played in another tournament. Hes declined all interviews. Hes simply stayed at home with his wife and new baby. Typically, hes chosen the anticlimactic first night of this years tournament, rather than the last, to make his announcement. The session isnt even sold out.
Some may find this disappointing, but I find it to be utterly true to who Sampras is. He never trusted fame, and always boxed up and guarded his ego.
Here are two true stories about Sampras, and how he consistently handled his success from the time he won his first U. S. Open at 19, to his last at 32. In 1996, Sampras was traveling cross- country in first class on a commercial jet, and sat next to Barry Bonds. Bonds didnt recognize him, and Sampras, shyly, didnt introduce himself. Behind Sampras sat a friend of Bonds, who wanted to sit with the ballplayer. Bonds pointed at Sampras. "If this kid gets ［up］, you can move up here," Bonds said. Sampras shrugged and moved, without a word.
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