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Associated Press"I'm 100 percent retired. I'm at peace with it," says the tearful tennis great, winner of a record 14 Grand Slams.
NEW YORK - Pete Sampras carried his 9-month-old son instead of a racket bag as he took one last walk off center court to one last standing ovation.
No more titles to win.
No more matches to play.
Sampras delivered a formal farewell to tennis Monday night at an on-court ceremony and earlier news conference at the U.S. Open, not quite one year since he won the tournament in what turned out to be his final match.
"The process is now over. I'm 100 percent retired," Sampras said, his voice cracking. "I'm at peace with it. It's time to call it a career."
Sampras, who is 32 and became a father in November, leaves with 64 singles titles, including a record 14 at Grand Slam tournaments: seven at Wimbledon, five at the U.S. Open and two at the Australian Open.
"I will never sit here and say I'm the greatest ever. I've done what I've done in the game. I've won a number of majors - I think that's kind of the answer to everything," Sampras, wearing a black suit and gray shirt, said at the news conference on the first day of the U.S. Open.
"I don't know if there's one best player of all time. I feel my game will match up to just about anybody. I played perfect tennis at times, in my mind."
Later, he was honored in a half-hour ceremony between the two night matches in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The crowd treated him to three extended standing ovations, and fellow major champions John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Jim Courier delivered speeches.
Said McEnroe: "I tried to serve like you. I couldn't do that. I tried to hit a big forehand like you. I couldn't do that. I also tried to act like Pete. Needless to say, I failed at that."
Sampras, known for his mild-mannered demeanor off and, often, on the court, wiped away tears during the tribute, which also included a three-minute highlight video with clips from each of his major-final victories and taped words from Andre Agassi.
Sampras was given a plaque with a photo of him in his trademark pose of jumping for an overhead smash, with a red superhero's cape superimposed. The plaque read: "In a career that spanned three decades, Pete Sampras rewrote the record books for the men's game and redefined the word "champion.' "
He finished at No. 1 in the rankings a record six years (1993-98) and held the top spot a total of 286 weeks, another record. Sampras tops the career earnings list with $43-million.
Sampras touched on a number of topics Monday, including his vanishing style of play ("The serve-and-volley game is pretty much gone today. I do worry about it."); his most disappointing moment (losing in the second round of Wimbledon last year); his loss to Stefan Edberg in the 1992 U.S. Open final ("It made me hate to lose. I just became obsessed with being the best."); and becoming detached from tennis ("I don't watch any. To shut it out has been nice. It's been so consuming to my life for so many years.").
The National Tennis Center made a perfect setting for Sampras' goodbye: He won his first and last major titles at the U.S. Open. In 1990 he beat Agassi in the final to become, at 19, the youngest champion in tournament history. Last year he beat - guess who? - Agassi to become, at 31, the oldest Open champion since 1970.
"I'm not retiring because I'm married or I have a son. I'm retiring because I have nothing to prove to myself. I've always had challenges ahead of me, either staying No. 1 or winning majors," Sampras said. "My biggest challenge was last year - the challenge of winning one more. Once I did that, I felt I really had climbed a tall mountain."
After Monday's ceremony, Sampras took a lap around the court with his son in his arms while Pearl Jam's song Alive blared overhead and fans stood. After a full circle, he kept walking, right through the door that leads to the locker rooms.
Sampras' farewell commanded most of the attention on a Grand Slam opening day, where more than 100 top men and women take to the courts and story lines abound. Among them:
Kim Clijsters won her first Grand Slam match since being ranked No. 1, and her boyfriend, 2001 Open champion Lleyton Hewitt, won his first Grand Slam match since a first-round exit at Wimbledon.
1998 champion Lindsay Davenport tested her injured left foot and advanced easily.
Highly seeded players were upset (No. 8 Chanda Rubin, No. 9 Sebastien Grosjean).
And a young American, Alex Bogomolov Jr., was taken away on a stretcher after cramping severely during a 31/2-hour match and retiring against Martin Verkerk.
Without Sampras or the injured Serena Williams, the Open is being contested without either of the previous year's champions for the first time in more than 30 years. It has lent an air of anyone-can-win to both draws, and Clijsters and the third-seeded Davenport figure to be among the women who could take advantage.
Clijsters replaced Williams atop the rankings two weeks ago despite never having won a Grand Slam title and now finds herself in the role of favorite for the first time. The Belgian, only once an Open quarterfinalist, lost the first two games against NCAA singles champion Amber Liu before piecing together a 6-2, 6-3 victory.
In Davenport's case, she'll only be a factor if she can deal with a nerve problem in her left foot, an injury that hampered her at the French Open and Wimbledon, and forced her to quit against Jennifer Capriati during the final of a tournament Saturday.
Davenport wasn't tested Monday, beating 80th-ranked Els Callens 6-1, 6-0 in 46 minutes. Davenport never faced a break point.
Career achievementPete Sampras holds the record with 14 Grand Slam titles:
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: 1994, 1997.
WIMBLEDON: 1993-95, 1997-2000
U.S. OPEN: 1990, 1993, 1995-96, 2002.