Pete Sampras: The Ace On and Off the Court
Pete Sampras first laid his hands on a tennis racket at the age of seven, and from then on there was no looking back. Inspired by his hero Rod Laver (whose recordings he would frequently view), the young American’s boyish passion for the game soon evolved into a career choice. Born to Georgia, his mother and Sam, his father, a civilian engineer for the Dept. of Defence, Sampras bagged the ATP (Association of Tennis Players) Player of the Year award for six consecutive years (1993-1998) and was awarded the Jim Thorpe Tennis Player of The Year in 1993.Sampras took the 48th position in the Top 50 Greatest North American Athletes in the ESPN’s Sports Century poll; he was also the least-aged amongst the athletes who had made it to the category. In 2000, the tennis legend was crowned GQ magazine’s Individual Athlete Award for Man of the Year. Sampras made his initiation into the U.S. Davis Cup team in 1991 and won the tournament with the 1992 and the 1995 U.S. squads. In a Top 25 ‘players of past 25 years poll’ conducted by ATP in1997, the American magician was chosen as number one by a voting body that consisted of present and former tennis players, media personnel and tournament organizers. The same year, Sampras trophy cabinet was also burgeoning under the happy burden of the U.S. Olympic Committee “Sportsman of the Year Award.”
Sampras obsession with sport is not restricted to the tennis court alone however; the American is a committed fan of golf (he was victor at the 1996 celebrity Long Drive competition), Formula One motorcar racing and basketball (the American is a season ticket holder of NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers) .Sampras also participated in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 1999 alongside professional golfers including Paul Azinger, Fred Couples, David Duval and the legendary Arnold Palmer. I n March 2000, the tennis maestro hosted the Pete Sampras Classic, an exhibition golf tournament that helped accumulate $100,000 worth charity for the Tim and Tom Gullikson Foundation. The American superstar has enjoyed monumental popularity both at home and abroad over a lengthy career, his face surfacing on the Wheaties cereal box in 2000 following his record-shattering Grand Slam win at the Wimbledon final that August. It was an epic showdown, witnessed in Britain alone by a television spectatorship of nearly 12.5 million viewers channelled on to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
A notable philanthropist, Sampras reigned as chairperson of the ATP Charities project in 1992 and has long held a seat at the American Cancer Society’s Public Awareness Council and the Tim and Tom Gullikson Foundation. In 1997, he inaugurated the Aces for Charity program, contributing $100 to the organization for every ace he managed to score, and in three years, Sampras had endowed sums worth around $1 million to the project. The Tennis ace’s charity extends to the Vitas Gerulaitis Youth and Kid’s Stuff Foundations, the Avon Breast Centre and Revlon Breast Cancer Research Center. Around the time of the 2002 U.S. Open, Sampras participated in a charity event at the Arthur Ashe Stadium court once again for the advantage of the Gullikson Foundation.
Sampras married silver-screen actress Bridgette Wilson on September 30th, 2000 and became the proud father of a son, Christian Charles, on November21st, 2002. The American superstar’s parents rarely made the audience of his matches(it made them too anxious to watch their son play they explained), but were there to cheer him on at his history-making Grand Slam win at the 2000 All England Club Championship, Wimbledon. However, the ace’s family is by no means detached from the game that has given their beloved so much; Sampras elder brother Gus sits as a tournament director for the Scottsdale ATP event and his sister Stella serves as chief coach at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).
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