| Things most tennis fans don't know about Pete
Pete has Thalassemia Minor, a mild form of an inherited disease common in some people of Mediterranean descent. This disease causes anemia and troubled Pete during long hot-weather matches. After the Corretja match in the 1996 U.S. Open, Tom Tebbutt, a US newspaper reporter, wrote a story claiming Pete sufferes from Thalassemia. Pete never admitted it until he broke the Grand Slam record in Wimbledon 2000 because he didn't want his opponents to have an edge by knowing he was playing with a deficit. Pete claims he didn't hear the famous call "Do it for your coach, Pete" during his match versus Jim Courier in the 1995 Australian Open. Pets says the tears were in the air way before the 5th set, and they arrived when he just couldn't keep anymore the storm of emotions inside of him. Vitas Gerulaitis who died tragically on September 18, 1994, was one of Pete�s best friends (and there weren�t many). Pete had a tough time after his death (Just before Gully�s problems began). During the 2000 Wimbledon, when Pete suffered from a tendinitis in his left leg and didn�t practice between matches he went to Dr Yujuan Sun, a Chinese acupuncturist who treated Pete with needles. Pete was impressed and went 5 times in total during the championship. Pat Cash, who was treated by Dr Sun in the past, was the one to advised Pete on her after seeing Pete struggling in the 2nd round. This is not confirmed (Pete, if you are reading this, please tell me your view): in the 1996 Roland Garros quarter-final versus Jim Courier, at set-point in the 4th set (1:2 5:4 40-0), when everyone had a flashback to the 1995 Australian Open, Pete, again, had tears in his eye. Because of that, when he served, his routine was different - after he wiped the tears with his sleeve, he bounced the ball without catching it in its rise (his thoughts were somwhere else). Watch it here. Comments Back Home |
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