...............PETE SAMPRAS...............
Professional tennis player. Born August 12, 1971, in Washington, D.C. Sampras is the third of four children of Soterios (Sam) and Georgia Sampras, a mechanical engineer and housewife respectively. He spent his early childhood in Potomac, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., before the family moved to the southern California town of Rancho Palos Verdes in 1978. Along with his older sister, Stella, Sampras showed a talent for tennis early on. From when he was in second grade, he was coached by a local pediatrician, Pete Fischer; he began his junior tennis career at age nine.
One of Sampras’ closest competitors during his years on the junior tennis circuit was Andre Agassi; their fierce on-court rivalry would go on to enliven men’s tennis during the 1990s. At 16, Sampras reached the finals of the United States Tennis Association’s Boys’ 18 Nationals, where he lost to Michael Chang; he was also on the junior Davis Cup team. Sampras left high school after his junior year in 1988 to join the professional tennis circuit.
In 1988, he was ranked 311th in the world; though he moved up to No. 12 by 1990, Sampras failed to win a tournament in 1988 or 1989. He parted ways with his first coach, Fischer, after the 1989 U.S. Open. The 19-year-old Sampras gave Fischer his full measure of credit, however, when he became the youngest-ever male Singles Champion at the U.S. Open in 1990, defeating Andre Agassi in the finals. (Sampras also upset Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe en route to the championship.) His win at the Open showcased the classic serve-and-volley game and strong one-handed backhand—both reminiscent of great players of the past, particularly the Australian champion Rod Laver—that Fischer had developed with him.
Over the next two years, Sampras struggled with injuries and came up short in the tournaments that he admitted really mattered to him—the four Grand Slams (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open). The turning point in his fortunes came after what Sampras referred to as “the most devastating loss of my career,” his loss to the Swedish player Stefan Edberg in the 1992 U.S. Open final in Flushing Meadows, New York. Then ranked No. 6 in the world, Sampras resolved to dedicate himself more fully to the game and fulfill his as yet untapped potential.
To that end, Sampras signed on with a new coach, former professional Tim Gullikson, the twin brother of another talented former pro and future Davis Cup captain, Tom Gullikson. After the 1992 U.S. Open, Sampras went on a 19-match winning streak, helping the U.S. Davis Cup team defeat Edberg and Sweden to win the Davis Cup title. On April 23, 1993, less than a year after his loss to Edberg in Flushing Meadows, Sampras attained the world No. 1 ranking for the first time.
He went on to consolidate his reign at the top of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings in the summer of 1993, defeating Agassi, Boris Becker, and Jim Courier to win his first Wimbledon title. Over the next two years, Sampras won four more Grand Slam titles, including the 1994 Australian Open, Wimbledon in 1994 and 1995, and the 1995 U.S. Open.
During the 1995 Australian Open, Sampras’ coach Tim Gullikson collapsed after suffering what appeared to be a stroke; he was later diagnosed with brain cancer. Racked with worry and sadness, Sampras broke down and cried openly during his quarterfinal victory over Courier; he eventually lost in the finals to Agassi. Though clearly shaken by his coach’s illness, Sampras went on to triumph yet again at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year. Gullikson died in May 1996, after struggling with the disease for over a year. It was a devastating loss for Sampras, who considered his coach a close friend.
From early 1995, the bulk of Gullikson’s coaching duties were taken over by Paul Annacone, also a former pro and a mutual friend of Sampras and Gullikson. Although he lost to Richard Krajicek at Wimbledon, Sampras came back to have a great year in 1996, capturing eight titles in nine finals' appearances, including the U.S. Open and the season-ending ATP Championship. He entered 1997 ranked No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year.
With a single-minded pursuit of Grand Slam titles, Sampras blazed through the 1997 season, winning both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Though he lost a tough five-set match at the U.S. Open to Petr Korda, Sampras assured himself the No. 1 ranking yet again with a victory at the ATP Championship. Near the end of that year, he was voted the top player of the last 25 years by a panel of former players, coaches, and tournament professionals. After a minor slump in early 1998, he won his fifth Wimbledon singles title and 11th total Grand Slam, tying the great Swedish champion Bjorn Borg and his role model, Rod Laver, and nudging up to the all-time record holder, Roy Emerson. At the end of the year, he won the ATP Championship and clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for the sixth consecutive year, breaking the previous record that he shared with Jimmy Connors (1974-78).
Early in 1999, Sampras skipped the Australian Open with an injury and had a predictably short run at the French Open, which is played on clay, historically Sampras’ worst surface by far. He rebounded at Wimbledon on his favorite surface, grass, matching Emerson’s record of 12 Grand Slam titles with a win over Agassi, still his greatest rival. Again struggling with injuries, he withdrew from the 1999 U.S. Open and finished the year at No. 3 in the world.
On July 9, 2000, in the finals at Wimbledon, Sampras defeated the Australian Patrick Rafter in four sets to win a record-breaking 13th Grand Slam title. It was Sampras’ seventh Wimbledon title in the past eight years. He also reached the finals of the U.S. Open, where he lost to the 20-year-old Marat Safin of Russia.
Sampras had a tough season in 2001, losing in the fourth round at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon and bowing out in the second at the French Open. At the U.S. Open in September, he was seeded a disappointing #10, but nonetheless played a great tournament, defeating former U.S. Open champs Rafter, Agassi (in an epic four-set, all-tiebreaker quarterfinal match), and Safin. In the finals, he was unable to continue his inspired run, losing to the 20-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets. He will end the year without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 1992.
From 1990 to 1996, Sampras was romantically involved with DeLaina Mulcahy, an attorney, and from 1997 to 1999 he dated actress Kimberly Williams (Father of the Bride). In late September of 2000, Sampras married another actress, Bridgette Wilson, a former Miss Teen USA who has appeared in such films as Billy Madison, Mortal Kombat, and The Wedding Planner. Their first child, Christian Charles, was born in November 2002.
..taken from an article at
http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=23571