A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis

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Product Description
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 A Champion’s Mind, 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 didn’t come without a price. The constant pressure of competing on the world’s biggest stage—in the unblinking eye of a media machine hungry for more than mere athletic greatness—took 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 faced—including the death of a longtime coach and confidant—and the struggles he gutted his way through while being seemingly on top of the world. Among the book’s 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 Pete’s career at the finals of the 2002 U.S. Open.

In A Champion’s 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.

Customer Reviews:   Read 16 more reviews...

A true champion   August 28, 2008
Joe Tennis (Bethlehem, PA)
Pete Sampras is my all time favorite tennis player and this book was a unique opportunity to gain insight into the personality and make up of one of the greatest champions of all time. It is hard to put the book down, once you start reading it. I would definitely recommend it to tennis players and non-tennis players alike.


A wonderful book filled with insights into a Champions mind!!   August 12, 2008
Joy Parker (Lake Lotawana, MO United States)
What a wonderful book. I could read a section about a match and want to pull out a tape and watch the match over because the book explained what Pete was feeling as he went through the match. Also, it was so interesting to read about how he was feeling during the many emotional times times in his life. The book shows us a Sampras that we rarely saw on the court.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it to everyone, not just tennis fans.


Pete Sampras Audio book   August 12, 2008
Kathy J
The audio book I purchased by Pete Sampras called A Champion's Mind was a great price and in great condition. It has been very enjoyable to listen to. I couldn't get over the reasonable price and how quickly I received it!


Pete Sampras King of Swing   August 9, 2008
Maria C. Pippos (Qld, Australia)
Pete Sampras - A Champions Mind was truly an amazing experience. Sampras lets you into his heart & mind and once you start reading his autobiography you just cannot put this book down. He really deserved more
respect than what he had received. I truly recommend this book to everyone, especially up and coming young athletes. Sampras was born with TALENT and was a true Gentleman but hard work is what made him a true Champion.


A fan's mind: Lessons learned   August 6, 2008
H. Ruiz (Lansing, MI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Pete Sampras' "A Champion's Mind" is indeed a 15th grand slam.

It never ceases to amaze me how generally people that move quiet, are soft spoken and calm are, turn to be the best writers, authors and talkers. Sampras' may have got a bit of help from his editor, but still it is impressive how relaxing and smooth this book can be... pretty much as his tennis was.

It is an interesting read that I recommend not only to tennis fans but also to people that are into knowing what is it that spins around the brain of successful people: from their first steps, through their growth, their falls, their peaks and finally their retirement. Pete basically gets naked on subjetcs as his family, coaches, trainers, friends, competitors, basically everything he never talked about during his days on the tour.

Another fun point worth every penny is Sampras' sarcastic sense of humour. Sometimes I felt I was reading something written by Conan O'Brien or David Letterman. Probably it is because as I said earlier you have this serious, non-emotional guy telling you this unexpected line at a very uptight situation. One example is what Sampras thought when he met Bridgette Wilson (whoever read the book will know what I'm taking about).

Objetive and no auto-flattering behavior, Sampras shows respect for himself, his peers and his predecesors as well as the new school of tennis players. One thing I would really like to ask Pete is why he placed Ivan Lendl as one of the GOAT, instead of perhaps the one player people relate him most -Pancho Gonzales-; the others named I agree. From my read, it seemed like Sampras had a bit more of respect for Lendl because of Ivan being so friendly and helpful to him during his first days on the tours. Who knows. After all, a few chapters into the book you realize that Pete is human, has a heart, has feelings and emotions, and may be a little subjective at times. Yet I wouldn't argue with him as I'm not even a Pro Tennis Player.

A Champion's Mind deserves 5 stars and no less, because it delivers what it says and it delivers what people would always expect from Pete Sampras: nothing else but 100% high quality.