Sampras still feels he can play with the best

Pete Sampras has not won a Grand Slam off grass since 1997 and no longer has the burning desire for the top ranking he once had, but at 29 he still believes he has the goods and mental fortitude to keep up with tennis' young guns.

"I'm not scared of anyone," Sampras said in a recent interview from his Los Angeles home.

"It's a question of how much I want to compete. I'm not going to play 20 to 25 events like I used to. I need to play enough to stay sharp, but with my ability, I think I can still play with anyone," he insisted.

In his last three major events -- the 2000 U.S. Open, the 2000 Tennis Masters Cup and the 2001 Australian Open -- Sampras failed to produce the firepower and willpower that brought him a record 13 Grand Slam titles and the number one ranking a record six years running.

He was streamrolled by young Russian Marat Safin in the U.S. Open final, was left wide-eyed by the wizardry of Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten at the Masters Cup and fell to his longtime whipping boy Todd Martin last month in Australia.

But the aging former world number one bristles at suggestions that it is time for him to step aside and let the next generation battle for Grand Slam glory.

"There's a lot of good young players but no one who really scares me," he said. "Andre Agassi is the one guy who can beat me when I'm playing well, but with Safin and Kuerten, even though they've beaten me, I feel like the match is on my racket.

"The majority of guys now are baseliners. It's not like I'm a huge guy with just a huge serve and nothing else. Week in and week out it does get tougher, but when I'm on, it's tough for guys to beat me," said Sampras, who will take a wild card entry into next week's Memphis tournament to keep sharp ahead of next month's bigger events at Indian Wells and Miami.

"I just need to stay inspired and motivated and that's my challenge," he added. "I still have the tools."

STILL WITHOUT EQUAL

Sampras's coach, Paul Annacone, said that when his pupil is on, he still has no peers.

"When Pete plays his best tennis, he's unequivocally the best player out there," Annacone said. "Will he produce that tennis 12 months out of the year? That's up to Pete.

"He still has room for small improvements and I think he's motivated to make them."

After winning his seventh Wimbledon title and record 13th Grand Slam last summer in a dramatic five-set victory over Patrick Rafter, Sampras could retire tomorrow and be considered by many the greatest ever.

When he reflects back on his most recent Wimbledon victory, Sampras still gets a little choked up.

"It was a storybook ending -- my parents were there, how well I played, the sun going down just as I won. It was the perfect way to break the record, a perfect match," recalled Sampras, who won despite playing with an injured shin that kept him off the practice courts.

"It's as good as it ever got and maybe as good as it will ever be. Even if I win it again, it will probably never approach that.

"But I want to have that special feeling again and will keep trying to see if I can get it again."

FRENCH OMISSION

There remains one glaring omission from Sampras's Grand Slam resume -- the French Open, where he has failed to get past the third round since reaching the semifinals in 1996.

"Winning the French Open, that would be a perfect career ender," Sampras admitted. "It's the one place I'm not supposed to win.

"Of course I'd like to win more Wimbledons because that's always been my place. And I haven't won a U.S. Open in a while," added Sampras, whose fourth and last U.S. Open crown came in 1996, before the new stadium was opened.

"But the French Open is my biggest challenge. I've won everything I wanted to win and then some," he said.

"I'm still trying to figure the French out."