by Tom Rife, Naples Daily News
August 24, 2003
Nobody had any dirt on Pete Sampras.
So they called him "Boooorrrring, boooorrrring."
They said he wasn't magnetic.
That he didn't stir the pot. That he couldn't elevate the game of tennis the way a pair of hangnails named Connors and McEnroe could.
They insisted that even his most arousing victories were simply too sterile and too nice and too much mush.
And you know what? That is the biggest ball hopper-full of bunk.
If such putative faults resulted in the tragedy of Pete Sampras, what we ought to be craving � not carving up � these days is more of the same.
Bring it on.
More decay. More stench.
More deceit. More warped perspective. More lack of passion.
If Pete Sampras, now 32, was really as stale as his detractors portrayed, may there be an army of clones waiting to march into Arthur Ashe Stadium and declare war on the brash and the bizarre.
The Samprases of the world without doubt would prevail in such a skirmish. Just as Pete himself did so many times when, boxed in by the white-lined confines of the planet's most storied tennis battlefields, he delivered nothing but the stuff of which generals are decorated.
It wasn't boooorrrring.
It was genius, the likes of which are not likely to be duplicated by any prodigies present or future.
Pete's achievements and class and Jack Armstrong appeal will be applauded � standing ovation guaranteed � Monday night at the U.S. Open where, a year ago, he conjured up a storybook ending to a startling career that was en route to the bindery for 13 years.
Did we sense that after Sampras flushed out Andre Agassi in last year's memorable Fountain of Youth Stakes, the curly-haired warrior was all out of winks?
Did we not then entertain the notion that we had witnessed the final barrage of brilliance from a man described as the "model athlete."
Staying power? Without it, Sampras wouldn't have earned 64 singles titles and a record 14 majors, seven of which he crafted on the trampled grass of Wimbledon.
In the Meadow, he won five.
Two others, Down Under.
Even without a French Open trophy on his mantle, Sampras still managed to hold the No. 1 world ranking a record six years from 1993 to 1998. He ruled the tennis roost for a total of 286 weeks.
Until he at last realized that No. 1 was a lonely number and that while tennis had given him a great life, there is more to having a great life than tennis.
Until he realized that going out in anything but the grandest of styles was the No. 1 mistake he would not have to make.
If you are, as they say, only as good as your last one, Pete Sampras simply could not have been better.
Professional grade, from start to finish.
No dirt.
Not boooorrrring.
You can e-mail sports editor Tom Rife at [email protected].