A Champions Mind;Lessons from A Life in Tennis Book

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now. In , the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people inside his head finally opens up. An athletic prodigy, Pete resolved from his earliest playing days never to let anything get in the way of his love for the game. But while this single-minded determination led to tennis domination, success didnt come without a price. The constant pressure of competing on the worlds biggest stagein the unblinking eye of a media machine hungry for more than mere athletic greatnesstook its toll. Here for the first time Pete speaks freely about what it was like to possess what he calls the Gift. He writes about the personal trials he facedincluding the death of a longtime coach and confidantand the struggles he gutted his way through while being seemingly on top of the world. Among the books most riveting scenes are an early devastating loss to Stefan Edberg that led Pete to make a monastic commitment to delivering on his natural talent; a grueling, four-hour-plus match against Alex Corretja during which Pete became seriously ill; fierce on-court battles with rival and friend Andre Agassi; and the triumphant last match of Petes career at the finals of the 2002 U.S. Open. In A Champions Mind, one of the most revered, successful, and intensely private players in the history of tennis offers an intimate look at the life of an elite athlete.Read More