I've been reading this book,"Pete Sampras: A Champion's Mind", for some very obvious reasons: Pete Sampras is the best American to ever play the sport of tennis. I am American and I love tennis. Therefore, Pete Sampras is someone who can't be beat when it comes to tennis heroes of mine. It's been fun to read him talk about playing his big rival, Andre Agassi, and some of the matches I remember watching in jr high/high school when tennis was such a big part of my life. Here are some excerpts I especially like: "It's true what they say about winning being a habit. Once you open that Pandora's box of doubt, all kinds of nasty things come flying out. I can't stress how important it is to train yourself to seek clarity at moments of doubt. You have t stay calm and have complete faith in your abilities. It takes a strong mind."
"Everybody has a place in this world, and spends a good part of his mature life carving ot his niche--the zone where he is comfortable...I decided that I had this great talent and I wasn't taking care of it. I had the Gift, and I was turning away from it, at least on some of the very occasions when it was maybe the only thing that could pull me through. It wasn't going to be good enough for me to just be in the mix; it would nag and wearat me. I realized that the game as not about getting somewhere, but staying somewhere. Some of us, we get there and we don't want to let it go. We don't want to see some other guy take it. And that's ultimately what makes you a warrior--a fully formed, mature competitor."
"All the while the knowledge pressed in on me: the job doesn't ed when you get to the final; in some ways, that's just the beginnin. Your tournament is like a sand castle. You lose the fnal and it's like the big wave came and,in seconds, washed away all that you had built. I remembered my dad and that acid comment he made in Louisiana: 'Look, that reporter is talking to Mal now.'"
"In tennis, you always have two opponents out there--the other guy and yourself. You can't worry too much about the other guy, other than dealing with the shots he sends your way. The most important guy you have to eat is yourself--the part of you that's prone to doubt, fear, hesitation, and the impulse to give up. If you're too busy struggling with yourself, like some players, you can hardly be expected to beat your opponent."
"When I evaluate how I was able to win so many matches over so many years, a few thing pop up as keys to the accomplishment...Throughout my career, whenever I made a critical mistake, I just wiped it off the hard drive. I don't really know how I developed that ability to move on instead of dwell upon, but I had it...If you train yourself not to let things get to you, they don't--although you probably need to be predisposed that way for the training to work fully...Maybe I'm just built a little differently,but a big part of my mentality and ultimately, success, was making a conscious decision not to lose it in front of others."
"The road was getting awfully bumpy for me...People really don't care about you that much; basically, you're only as good as yor last win; people often love what you do, while you can do it, but there's nothing really personal about it; many people are interested in you for what you can do for them, not necessarily because of who you are, or even how great you are; you may do special things, but you're nothing special; nobody in tennis is given a free ride based on past performance. Some of those truisms are fair and all of them are realistic. But tennis players are selfish and disinclined to see things objectively."
It was really interesting to hear from an insider how the media and the "public" played a part in a tennis player's life. One of the big Nike commercials in '95 was fun to go back and look at. They won't allow you to embed it so here's the link if you're interested:
I miss the days of Sampras and Agassi. It's too bad some good things have to change. I love these pictures--especially the "early years" one. Why do they both look so upset? And why did Agassi ever think it was okay to wear neon green biker shorts?
How do you feel about Agassi's ummm...confession? I was SO disappointed!!
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