Wimbledon is missing something major
By Richie Whitt
Star-Telegram
Wimbledon has started. But, in case you missed it, its greatest champion is finished.
Welcome to the Yawn on the Lawn.
While the remaining players press their all-whites and polish their serve-and-volleys on the famed grass courts of the oldest, most revered tennis tournament on the planet, Pete Sampras is as far from England as the Rangers are from first place. He's in Beverly Hills. In the sun. Incognito.
In retirement.
"I'm content," Sampras told London newspapers before the tournament he owns began without him for the first time in 15 years. "I really don't have anything left to prove in tennis."
Sampras, holder of seven Wimbledon titles and a record 14 Grand Slam crowns, says there is a "5 percent" chance he'll play competitively again. Using Michael Jordan math, he'll be back tomorrow. But in Pete Sampras terms, he's done.
Yep, the man with the loudest serve in the history of the game served up one of sports' quietest farewells. No speeches. No bows. No rocking-chair tours. Just an improbable upset of rival Andre Agassi as an afterthought 17th seed in last September's U.S. Open final, and then pfft. Game, set, era.
Jordan retires from basketball and ESPN produces 24-hour coverage. Sampras retires from tennis, and when ESPN2 mentions it Monday morning during its Wimbledon coverage, we respond with a collective "Hmmm, when did that happen?"
Centre Court without Sampras? Imagine Amen Corner without Tiger. The Alps without Lance Armstrong. The Nelson without Byron. Strawberries without cream. The Eagles without Hotel California. Anna Kournikova without her looks.
Eerily empty.
Men's defending champion Lleyton Hewitt shockingly lost in the tournament's opening match, as if the pitch that Pete perfected was immediately stamping an asterisk on the first fortnight without Sampras since 1988. Sadly, his final match at the pantheon of tennis might have been his worst, a second-round loss last year to Swiss journeyman George Bastl out on Court No. 2. That's akin to Michelangelo missing a spot while touching up behind the toilet as he left the Sistine Chapel.
If Sampras doesn't make it back to Wimbledon, we'll remember the touch volleys, the stoic demeanor and the way he turned tennis' cathedral into his personal back yard. But mostly, we'll remember the Sampras Serve.
Andy Roddick's is faster, John McEnroe's had a nastier angle and Boris Becker's a more violent kick, but Sampras' effortless motion not only produced the best ever serve in tennis -- but also one of the most devastating weapons in the history of sports. Simply unreturnable in the clutch and on the grass, Sampras' serve is up there with Nolan Ryan's fastball and Barry Sanders' spin and Muhammad Ali's jab and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook.
Seems like just yesterday the 17-year-old Sampras showed up at Wimbledon with a full head of hair and an empty r?sum?. But now suddenly, almost silently, Pete at tennis' pinnacle is just a memory. The rented house outside London, the corner locker in the gentlemen's clubhouse and the 99 mph second-serve aces smoking up chalk from two lines on break point are no longer his.
First David Beckham left for Spain. Now Sampras has stayed in California. In England, it's the Summer of Sans.
Without Sampras in the field, the men will take an even more-than-usual back seat to a talented women's competition led by the Williams sisters. While Serena and Venus fight each other and Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne, the only intriguing male storyline belongs to Sampras' old foil, Agassi, and his attempt to earn another date with the Duchess of Kent in the twilight of his career.
Maybe the 31-year-old Sampras will watch Wimbledon on TV and become rejuvenated. Maybe he'll get bored with his mansion and his fortune and his actress wife, Bridgette Wilson, and his 6-month-old son, Christian. Maybe he'll get tired of playing sand volleyball and basketball and call up coach Paul Annacone for a hitting session that will lead to him playing the U.S. Open in September or Wimbledon in 2004 or ... just maybe, for once, one of our heroes actually retired on top.
Wimbledon has started. But, in case you missed it, for Pete Sampras the grass really is greener.
On the other side of the world.