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Not to worry

Sampras says there is no reason to panic

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Posted: Sunday May 16, 1999 10:37 AM

Sampras said he desperately needed a break after ending the year as No. 1 for a record sixth consecutive time. AP

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) -- It has been a tough year for Pete Sampras but the former world number one is convinced that better times are coming.

"There's no reason to panic," Sampras said on Sunday at the World Team Cup, where he is warming up for the French Open starting on May 24. "My form will get better."

Sampras started the year with a rest, missing the Australian Open, then sustained a back injury and earlier this month lost his top spot to Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

He was whistled off center court as he fell to Brazilian qualifier Fernando Meligeni in the second round of the Italian Open in Rome on Wednesday.

"I haven't played many matches and to play well I need to play a lot," he said after recovering some pride with a 7-5 6-4 win over France's Cedric Pioline in his first match in Duesseldorf.

"Compared to the way I played last week in Rome I played much better today," he said. "I'm starting to find my range.

"I'll get my game going and, hopefully, I'll be hard to beat in the next couple of weeks."

Sampras said he desperately needed a break after ending the year as number one for a record sixth consecutive time.

"Not going to Australia was perhaps not the best decision as far as tennis is concerned but it was the best decision for my life," he said.

"I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and I needed to take some time off."

Years of hard work with plenty of tennis but little else had taken their toll, he said.

"After all those years I felt like a robot," he said.

"I felt I had to tell the tennis world I was not going to Australia. If I had kept going at that pace, I would have been done in a couple of years and I don't want that to happen."

The fact that he has played very few matches on clay with the French Open just around the corner did not worry him.

"My best result at the French was a year when I had not won a single match on clay," he said, referring to his semifinal appearance in the French capital in 1996.

"I know I will soon be playing my best tennis again. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll get there."

 

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