Pete Sampras Reveals His Opinion of Olympic Tennis

Written by: Staff on 18th July 2012

Pete Sampras Reveals His Opinion of Olympic Tennis

epa02942680 US tennis star Pete Sampras returns the ball to former world number one Marat Safin of Russia during an exhibition match to inaugurate the new Tennis China Open center court in Beijing, China, 30 September 2011. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL |

Pete Sampras won most things he craved during his tennis career with the exception of the French Open. At the time the lack an Olympic gold medal in his trophy collection didn’t seem such a disappointment but now he thinks otherwise.

Nevertheless, Sampras has called for Olympic tennis format to be overhauled and turned into a competition with a much stronger team format.

“I just feel they should change the format in some way to make it a little more unique,” said Sampras who who contested the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, before opting to miss out the tennis events in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000). “Maybe the Olympics should be a bit different.”

Sampras’ reasoning at the time for not competing in Atlanta and Sydney was his experiences, losing in the third round at Sydney . to Andrei Cherkasov of Russia . He felt he wasn’t competing in anything special and that the Olympics were just another event in the tennis schedule.

“I remember playing my first round, I was on court 3 and Jim Courier was playing at the same time on Stadium Court ,” said Sampras. “You are just playing another match but it’s supposed to be country and team.

Speaking to the Tennis Space, Sampras acknowledged the interest among the leading contenders has changed over the past years and appreciated the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal all see Olympic gold as a great prize.

“For me the Olympics was always track and field or boxing. Swimming or gymnastics,” said Sampras. “In the last few Olympics, tennis has gotten more prestigious. It’s more important to the players, everyone’s playing, whereas in my time it was sort of on the fence as to whether you were going to play or not. I did, and it was fun, I got to see a little gymnastics for an hour. It was a good experience, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“I think this year with the Olympics at Wimbledon . It’s going to be very cool, very unique, and something I would have done if I’d had the opportunity.”

Topics: 10sballs.com, Andrei Cherkasov, London Olympics, Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal, Sports, Tennis News