RCA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

August 15, 1996

Pete Sampras

PETE SAMPRAS: No. I live in Tampa. He works out at Bollettieri's. It is about an hour drive. We were trying to hook up and hit, but it never happened. But we will get the chance tomorrow.

PETE SAMPRAS: I have never seen him play. I am sure my coach Paul Annacone went out and scouted him and see what he likes and doesn't like. It is a little difficult playing someone you have never seen play and getting used to it. I believe he went through the qualifying and to beat players that he has beaten here, he is obviously in good form. I feel like I am in good form; playing pretty well tonight, a little easier than the other nights, so I am pretty happy about that.

PETE SAMPRAS: I have played matches like this many times over the years. Just go out and play another match. Go out and play my game, that is all I can really -- sum it up very easily like that. But I am sure he is going to have nothing to lose and like I said, he beat Woodforde today. Woodforde is a very good player, so he is playing well.

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, that is -- it doesn't surprise me that much. These guys are hitting the ball so big and serving so big. They go out with absolutely, you know, with nothing to lose and it is easy to play like that. Easy to play with, you know, kind of shooting from the hip and, you know, with the ranking system there is today, you can afford to do that play as much as you want, go out and tee off and hopefully win.

PETE SAMPRAS: I thought I just hit the ball well. Returned all right. Didn't really serve that great. But I don't think Marcos played quite as well as he normally does. I just played pretty solid.

PETE SAMPRAS: It was just some nights, some days that, you know, I didn't have it. I didn't have my fast ball. It was, you know-- fortunately, I hit the ball pretty well. Maybe my toss was moving all over the place, I don't know. I just have so see what Paul saw with my serve. Maybe I was bringing my head down. There are so many things that can happen in the serve. You can do something wrong. I was missing them, maybe trying to serve a little bit too hard. It just wasn't there tonight. Hopefully it will be there tomorrow.

PETE SAMPRAS: I tend to. Especially what kind of speed he is serving at and, you know, kind of see if I hit a big serve, if it is coming in pretty quick, 120 or something, so it is pretty difficult to return if you are serving that big.

PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah. Rely on -- I'd much rather serve well and make things a little bit easier, but when times are a little bit tough on my serve, I feel like I have confidence in my backcourt game to out-rally these guys and hope as the match goes on the serve can come around and it never really did tonight. It was a little bit spotty. Just have to, you know, work on it a little bit tomorrow; not a lot and hopefully serving better.

PETE SAMPRAS: No, I don't think I refocused. I felt I was ready to go. I just played a loose game. Had a game point; missed a forehand, you know, little bit, you know, takes a little while to get used to playing out there even though I played other nights here, so, you know, just kind of, you know, it is only one game even though it is a break, I felt like, you know, still very early in the match and there is no reason to panic, just go out and play some solid tennis.

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, it is -- it is really disappointing for the event, I mean, to not have him here, you know, hurts the TV; hurts the sponsors; hurts the tournament. You don't like to see things like that happen. He said some things he shouldn't have said and he paid the price. We all kind of react differently to bad line calls or not playing well, and he just maybe went a little bit too far and that was it.

PETE SAMPRAS: I have played Andre where he has lost his cool a couple of times and has been on the edge of -- has been on the edge. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) And last night, I just think he just went a little bit too far and, you know, it is surprising. I mean, seemed like he was in control of the match - wasn't like he was close to losing. I mean, the way things were going, you know, no reason for him to do that, but that is the way it goes.

PETE SAMPRAS: Inconsistently as far as guys getting points and --

PETE SAMPRAS: Well, I don't know if I can comment because I have never gotten a warning.

PETE SAMPRAS: I haven't -- no. Not really. I mean, I think, you know, the Tour does a pretty good job of controlling the matches with the umpires and it is just an unfortunate thing. I mean, you don't like to see things like that happen him going out on being defaulted by the umpire, I mean, it is unfortunate.

PETE SAMPRAS: Was I here?

PETE SAMPRAS: I watched it on the news. Funniest thing was when that dog was pissin in the flowers (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) That just sums it up (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) That was funny.

PETE SAMPRAS: Got a lot of publicity out of it.

PETE SAMPRAS: No, I don't think so. By the time the Open comes around, it would have been a couple of weeks and seems like after the Olympics and Cincinatti, his game is back to where it should be and playing very well, so I don't think it will have any affect.