Egy kis "on-olás" :) (angolul tudóknak)

Should Sampras retire?

Pete Sampras. This name means a lot of things. It means a great tennis player, 13 Grand Slam titles, world No. 1. But nowadays, especially this season, it also means deception, failure and possible retirement .

Pete Sampras was born on August 12, 1971 in Washington DC. Pete began playing tennis with his father when he was seven years old. He grew up idolising tennis legend Rod Laver dreaming of one day becoming like him.

He became a professional tennis player in 1988 and won his first career title in 1990 in Philadelphia. Following this title, Sampras just got fired up a began to win every single tournament he played.

He finished as the top ranked player for six consecutive years, making him the first player ever to accomplish so. Through September 1999 he was the No. player for 276 weeks, surpassing Ivan Lendl and winning a total of 63 singles titles. He won 13 Grand Slams, seven at Wimbledon, four at the US Open and two at the Australian Open.

He has won at least one singles title since 1990 until today, where he hasn’t been able to succeed one single time since his 13th Grand Slam crown at Wimbledon 2000.

Sampras has had a miserable year in which, for the first time, since 1991, he will finish the year outside the top five. For the "Mr Cool" of the tennis world, the situation has made him lose his temper on the court, a rare scene, which is perhaps an indication of the inner turmoil he had been struggling with all season.

Since his surprise loss to Roger Federer in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Sampras has been losing to players he would once have dismissed with ease. The American has thus been forced to confront the reality that he is no longer the dominant force on the tour, a fact that has caused uncontrollable frustration to the star.

The Stuttgart Masters last week was Sampras’ last hope of sealing a berth for the season-ending Masters Cup in Sydney. Unfortunately things didn’t go the way he had planned as he was eliminated by eventual finalist Max Mirnyi.

This defeat devastated the American as he flew back home, withdrawing from Basel and possibly bringing a premature end to his season if he decides not to play in the last Masters Series in Paris

His miserable year and his early exit from Stuttgart means that for the first time since 1990 he has failed to qualify for the elite Masters Cup.

Having bagged most of the records on offer, Sampras has little left to prove except perhaps to himself.

For the first time a loss in a tournament has broken Sampras’ spirit and at least, for now, he is turning his back on the sport which has been his life for the past 13 years.

Maybe the moment has come for Sampras to start thinking in a life after tennis.