Pete on growing
up
Q.
What are your fondest childhood memories?
No matter how long I think about
it, it always come back to tennis. Playing
and winning. Getting out of school and going
on court, grinding away. And seeing
improvements in my game.
I
didn't have any friends in high school,
except at the Jack Kramer Club where I
practised. I didn't hang around with anybody,
didn't play any other sports, didn't
socialize. It got so bad that during lunch
period I'd just go home. To the other kids I
was just 'the tennis guy.' But I was okay
with thay - I had a passion for the game.
I'm
not the sentimental type. I didn't keep old
teddy bears or my first tennis racket. In
fact, I've got very little of my own
memorabilia. It seems like every year I won
Wimbledon, Ian Hamilton [a former executive
at Nike, his clothing sponsor] would come
into the locker room and ask for my shoes,
autographed. I'd just laugh and give them to
him.
Q.
Do you feel you missed out on a normal
adolescence?
Not really, although sometimes I
think it would have been nice to go to
college. I talk about that a lot with my
sister Stella, who loved the independence,
the parties, the fun. If I start to think I
missed anything, I just have to remind myself
that my job is to play sports. It's every
kid's dream come true. I don't think it gets
any better than this.
Pete on
religion and marriage
Q.
Do you believe in God? If so, how do you
express your faith?
I
absolutely believe. I used to go to Sunday
school and Greek Orthodox Sunday services
with my family. That's how my parents raised
me and that's how I'll raise my kids some
day.
Q.
You showed a marked preference for dating
actresses. Is there a hidden, flamboyant side
to you?
I'm
not real comfortable talking about this
stuff. But if you're suggesting I live this
racy bachelor lifestyle, that's not really
accurate. I never went out to pick up girls.
I never enjoyed it, and I'm much too
protective about everything in my life to
live loosely. I have gone to the occasionaly
club, had a few drinks, a little fun, but I
knew I'd never meet my wife at a nightclub.
Q.
You have an extraordinary record at Wimbledon
despite the fact that you didn't like grass
early on and didn't get past the second round
until 1992, the fourth year you played there.
How did you turn it around?
For
years, I felt that grass was unfair. My first
few trips there, I thought, 'Ugh! This
surface stinks'. I'm holding serve easily,
but I'm going to lose, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6. My
attitude was very negative, even though my
coach Pete Fischer always insisted that I
would do well there.
When
Tim Gullikson took over as my coach, he felt
the same way as Fischer. In 1992, we worked
really hard on the two things you most need
to win on grass: a good second serve and
sharp service returns. that year, I was
practising at Wimbledon one day on a court
next to John McEnroe. He heard me making
negative comments about the grass. He
challenged me, saying I had a great game for
grass but a crappy attitude. It was almost
like a throwaway remark, but it must have
sunk in, because here I am relating it eight
years and seven titles later. I didn't get
over the hump until I changed my negative
attitude.
Pete on John
McEnroe
Q.
Is it fair to say that your relationship with
McEnroe, currently your Davis Cup captain,
has been volatile?
John
and I are about as different as two people
can get personality-wise, and that explains a
lot.
We've
had our share of miscommunication at times.
John likes to stir things up. He thrives on
controversy and emotional stuff in a way that
I don't and, once you understand that, it's
easier to deal with him. The big plus is that
he's been there at that high level, and he
knows how to handle players like Andre and me
on court.
Q.
In recent years, McEnroe has suggested you
ought to be more colourful, show more
emotion. Do you resent that?
To
have someone tell me that I ought to act
differently from how I am, or to make an
effort to be exciting, is just the biggest
load of garbage. We're all different.
It's
baffling that anyone would presume to tell
someone else to depart from their natural
self. I have no apologies to make for the way
I play or what I project.
I
feel no shame in knowing kids are watching me
play and maybe even taking their cues from
it. And I think that my own quiet way has
taken me to places I wouldn't have dreamed of
ever reaching.
Pete on his
greatest achievements
Q.
What are some of your personal career
highlights?
Right off, my first US
Open title. The 1999 Wimbledon final against
Andre is right up there too. It was my
best-ever display of playing at a high level,
against a top-quality opponent, at a very big
moment. I had it all that day. The 1995 Davis
Cup final against Russia in Moscow is another
one, because I won three matches - two
singles and the doubles - against a tough
team on clay, my least favorite surface. Two
others stand out, but not because of the the
title matches: the 1997 Australian Open and
the 1996 US Open.
In
Melbourne, I had a pretty easy final against
Carlos Moya, but I almost lost to Dominik
Hrbaty in five very tough sets in 140-degree
heat in the fourth round. And at the '96 US
Open I had that epic quarter-final match with
Alex Corretja. [Sampras won a four hour
marathon after throwing up on court during
the fifth set tiebreaker; he went on to beat
Chang in the final].
Pete on his low
iron condition
Q.
It seems that the 'F' word in your career has
been 'fitness'. Are your critics justified in
claiming you aren't always in the best of
shape?
After
that Corretja match, Tom Tebbutt, a US
newspaper reporter, wrote a story claiming I
suffered from thalassemia, a low-iron blood
condition that afflicts some people of
Mediterranean descent. He was spot on. I have
it. It sometimes makes me feel lethargic and
a little out of it - that hang-dog look is
partly because of the condition - especially
in any very hot weather. I've been doing
about all you can to offset it, which is
taking iron pills. Other than trying to build
up your iron level, there isn't much else you
can do.
I've
never admitted it until now because I didn't
want my opponents to have that confidence of
knowing I was playing with a deficit.
I've
also had stomach problems, partly because of
the way I internalize things and create
stress. I had a small ulcer for about two
years before that Corretja match without even
knowing it. Playing matches in brutal heat
didn't help either of those two conditions.
Apart
from that, I don't have the personality to
work as hard as, say a Jim Courier. Or the
body. Leaner guys are different. I'm built
more along the lines of a Stefan Edberg, who
wasn't particularly known for his fitness,
either. But the issue is always in my mind,
and I've tried to do all I need both on the
court and in the gym to maximize my game. My
current goal is to keep my fitness level high
during off weeks and breaks from the tour.
Q.
That Corretja match is emblematic of how hard
you work for your success at Flushing
Meadows. Is it fair to say that the US Open
has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for
you?
Well,
I can't complain. I've won my own national
title four times. But it has been an
interesting ride and a less smooth one than
I've had at Wimbledon.
Maybe
it has to do with the US Open being the last
Grand Slam event of a very long year. That
may explain things like the herniated disc I
had last year, just before the event started.
I
always put myself through more torture than
necessary at the US Open. I kind of raised
the bar with my record from 1993-95 [Sampras
won two Grand Slam titles in each of those
years], and I remember in '96 people had
these huge expectations. I hadn't won a Slam
that year going into the Open, and I heard
people whispering that I was slipping. I
wanted that title. I wanted it so much, it
turned my stomach upside down. That's how the
Corretja thing came about.
Afterwards,
I realized that tennis was consuming my life.
I wanted so badly to win and I was so focused
that I lost touch with reality. It took me
wandering around the court, throwing up, to
realise that. Later, I talked about it with
Paul [Annacone]. He said I had to be careful,
because I 'm too hard on myself. But that
also helps explain why I've done so well.
Q.
Do you feel like you've paid a huge price for
your success?
Not
at all. The recognition, having to live a
life in the public eye, is probably the
toughest part. But even that isn't too bad.
It's flattering on one level, even though I
do wish I could shut it off.
How
can I complain about my lot? If I do, I
probably should be slapped around rather than
listened to.
Pete on gripes
with the media
Q.
Have you ever felt a desire for more sympathy
than you've received?
On
two occasions. One was that Davis Cup win
over Russia. I'm really proud of that and
feel it went unrecognized in the US. The
other time was in 1998, when I set the record
by finishing No. 1 for the sixth straight
year.
I
think that's a record unlikely to be broken,
given the growin depth in the game. I wasn't
calling any press conferences to complain
that there wasn't a single American
journalist in Europe covering that story. But
when the European press kept asking me about
it, I told them how I felt.
All
right, it isn't going to excite the American
media like somebody breaking the major league
baseball single-season home-run record. And
if people hear me complain about not getting
enough credit, they're goiing to nail me. But
I'm a human being. I have emotions. If I go
through something that exacts such a heavy
toll and feel it isn't recognized, it gets to
me. I think it would get to anybody.
Q.
What was the toll of that effort?
It
was an awful period. I decided I really
wanted the record, even if it meant staying
in Europe and playing tennis for almost two
months in a row, which is basically what I
did. Unlike, say, winning Wimbledon, this
record was a once-in-s-lifetime chance.
I
don't confide in a lot of people, but after I
lost to Richard Krajicek in Stuttgart at the
end of October that year, I was still No. 2,
with no guarantee of how things would turn
out. At my next tournament, the Paris
Indoors, I got Paul in my room and told him,
"Hey, I'm really struggling with this. I
can't stop thinking about this record issue.
I'm putting so much into it. How am I going
to deal with it if I don't get it?" It
put me in a situation I don't experience a
lot - the fear of losing. And that's a big
thing.
But
I coudn't make this obsession go away. Even
when people ask me now if it was worth all
the effort, the best I can say is
"Yeah...sort of." Because the
effort took so much out of me. My hair was
falling out in clumps. I couldn't eat and I
couldn't sleep. After seven straight weeks
fighting to get the job done, I came home as
mentally and physically tired as I've ever
been in my life. And I ended up thinking,
This isn't war. I'm not fighting for my life
here.
People
who know me understand that I torture myself
sometimes just to win matches. I would almost
say that in some ways, my life has been
unbalanced. But I'm learning. Moving back to
Los Angeles and spending more time with my
family and girlfriend have helped me changed
a little.
I
realize it's okay to lose a tennis match. I'm
not worried about that taking the edge off my
competitiveness, because I really want to
keep playing. If I slip up and never win a
big title again, that's just the way it goes.
The
one thing I won't do is get into another
situation like that quest for the record.
Q.
Has it been gratifying to see Andre Agassi
re-emerge in the autumn of his career as a
force in the game and a rival to you?
Undoubtedly.
I've grown much more aware of what Andre has
meant to my career during the last few years,
since we've played each other a little more.
Before, I didn't really see my relationship
or rivalry with Andre as anything special.
But now I do. I think we both realize now
what's going on: We bring a lot to each
other's table.
Our
games match up great; whichever of us is
playing better can really shine. And our
rivalry is good for us and it's good for the
game.
Ironically,
it hurt my career in some ways not to have
Andre around all the time. Navratilova had
Evert. Borg had McEnroe, Becker had Edbert. I
had Andre...at times. Our rivalry is as good
as it will ever get for either of us. It
helps us build our legacies. We both know
that. We don't even have to talk about it.
Pete on how
tragedy has touched his life
Q.
You've shown great loyalty to your three
coaches over the year: Fischer, Gullikson and
Annacone. two of those coaches experience
real tragedy. How did the fall of Pete
Fischer [he was jailed in 1998 for child
molesting] and Tim Gullikson's death from
brain cancer in 1996 affect you?
I
had long been separated from Pete's life by
the time he went to jail. I didn't follow his
case very closely, but I knew that no matter
what he did, I couldn't abandon him as a
friend. He was a big part of my life. He had
a lot to do with what I am today, and you
don't just desert someone like that. It's
hard to see where he can ever go from here,
when he gets out [of prison] in about a year.
And that's sad.
Tim's
situation really hit home, harder. He was
with me when he got ill, and he died pretty
much right before my eyes. I don't take what
Pete's been through lightly, but I can't
imagine anything worse than what Time had to
endure.
It
was hard playing through it all especially
because I had to deal with it in a public way
when it was such a deeply sad, privat
experience. He certainly put the gift of life
into a new perspective for me.
Q.
What's the main thing you've learned about
people throughout all these years?
That
everyone isn't necessarily honest and that
I'm only interested in people who are
straight-shooters. My attitude is basically
that I'm always going to be honest, and I
expect people to be honest in return.
Q.
How much of a future do you still have in
tennis?
I
can't put a number on that in terms of years,
but I'll keep going as long as the desire
last. The scary thing for me is that with the
way I play and the way I feel, I believe that
I'll have a chance to win Wimbledon, or the
US Open, even at 35.
I
see myself being around for a while. Yevgeny
[Kafelnikov] is convinced that I'm the main
obstacle in his path to winning Grand Slams
and being No. 1 for an extended period.
Whenever I see him in a locker room, he asks
me, "So Pete, how much longer are you
going to play?" My stock answer is,
"Gee, I don't know; how much longer do
you think you'll play?"
