By Scoop Malinowski | Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Pete Sampras' philosophy of tennis was fairly straight forward: Bring the heat on serve, attack net and let his racquet do the talking.

Now, rivals, friends and coaches are talking about one of the greatest champions in history.

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In Facing Sampras, a new book by Scoop Malinowski, competitors and rivals of Sampras discuss in detail their memories and experiences of playing tennis against the seven-time Wimbledon champion, who reigned for six years as the ATP World No. 1 ranked tennis player (1993-1998).

Here's an excerpt from the book.

"I think Pete transformed—in a subtle, silent way—the attitude of the game and the attitude of the best players."—Sammy Giammalva Jr.

"People tried all sorts of things to get him off his edge."—Leander Paes "

"He had a button that he could push."—Todd Martin

"I always used to watch him break down Agassi which was always interesting."—Wayne Ferreira

"It was impossible to play him."—Emilio Sanchez

Jeff Tarango: "I beat him thirteen times in juniors. And I lost to him seven times in the pros [laughs]. Yeah, it was one of those things when I turned pro (after playing at Stanford University for three years), he said, 'You gotta move to Florida, you gotta get up to speed. You gotta come out here at Saddlebrook, you gotta come out and grind with me.' He didn't like playing lefties. He hated lefties. And he wanted me to practice with him to get ready for (Thomas) Muster, to get ready for (Goran) Ivanisevic, to get ready for all the great players he was playing."

"We had a lot of fun practicing and playing backgammon together, train rides in Europe. And we spent a lot of time traveling together, living in Saddlebrook. Because we were both from the same area (in Southern California). We always got along. We had the same coach (Robert Lansdorp). So I'd always throw some Lansdorpian things to him and they would catch. And I got along well with his coaches. We just had a great time on Tour.

"But he was such a great player that every time we'd get to 5-all or 6-all in the tiebreaker, he'd get me. That's the funny part. We'd play a hundred pounds a tiebreaker the whole month before Wimbledon. And I'd usually end up two or three thousand pounds down. And then we'd play a game where I'm at the baseline and he's at the net. And then I can start the ball and I can rip the ball as hard as I can but it has to go to him. And every time you'd miss the ball, the other guy would get two dollars [smiles]. But we'd time it by two every time. Because I was always hoping I'd get my two thousand pounds back. And then we used to go to the Gloucester Hotel and play blackjack all night. I mean ALL NIGHT. And go home and get on the Tube to practice at Queens. He had his own court at Queens.

"We just had a lot of great times. And it wasn't like complicated times of all the time night clubbing and all the stuff you'd think we'd be doing on the Tour. Very simple. Let's go to Pizza Hut. Let's get a spaghetti and pizza and go to sleep. Just very simple stuff. We had a very good friendship but over the years, you know, the biggest time was when he was having that drought at the end of his career. And he was complaining about his back. And I remember coming in the player's lounge once and asking Paul Annacone if I could have a few minutes with Pete alone. Paul was like, 'Oh I don't knoooww, you're kind of wacky [laughs]. I'm not sure we should do this.' Pete's like, 'Oh, it's okay, it's okay.'"

"I said, 'Pete, you gotta give up the golf. You can't play golf and tennis in the same day. With how hard you serve, that's what's killing your back. If you really want to come back, if you really want one more slam, you gotta quit golf.' And he stopped playing golf and his back got better and he came back here (US Open in 2002). And I stayed with him here till after he beat (Greg) Rusedski. Because that was gonna be the last lefty he was gonna play in the draw. And I needed to get back over to Europe to play some other tournaments. When he beat Rusedski, I remember talking to Mrs. Sampras, then Miss Wilson, and she was like, 'You can't leave! You're his good luck charm.' And I said, 'Pete's never needed me as a good luck charm. He'll be just fine. He's gonna win this.' She's like, 'You think so?' And the rest is history. I was a little upset he retired like that but he said he wanted to go out being No. 1. And that's the way he wanted to remember it."

Question: Lasting memory of Pete?

Jeff Tarango: "Lasting memory of Pete Sampras...his little chuckle, his heh-heh-heh-heh... We were playing, I think, the last tiebreaker for a hundred pounds. And I had him. I was up like 5-3 in the tiebreaker. And it was my serve. And (I) served out wide to his backhand and he hit a clean backhand winner down the line and he goes, 'Heh-heh, nobody thinks I can hit that shot.' I said, 'Because you only make one a day.' He said, 'That's all I need.'" [Laughter]

Facing Sampras is available on Amazon for $9.99 or $4.99 on Kindle.