“A couple of tight spots, but nothing to be alarmed about,” he said “Last week was cold and windy You feel a little sore in spots, especially on the grass It got cool at the end of the match today. It’s nice to stretch out a little bit and keep the muscles loose.”As he approaches 29, Sampras says he does all he can to minimise injuries. “I try to go out there warmed up, stretched out, in a sweat, and use the five-minute warm-up to really move my feet. Over the years, I’dreally not do anything with that five minutes. It’s important to keep the feet moving, get the heart rate up, hopefully break a sweat.”In the second round, Sampras will play the Slovak Karol Kucera, a far more dangerous opponent than his current position, No 63 in the ATP Tour entry system, suggests. Kucera defeated Wayne Black, the Zimbabwe Davis Cup player, no stranger to grass, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.Sampras was asked if he had a problem staying focused amid all the talk about breaking records.
“It’s not a problem,” he said, “because when you step out on that court, like I did today, you’re not worried about history, you’re worried about who you’re playing You’re worried about where you’re hitting your next serve. When you’re in the battlefield, you don’t really think about breaking records.”. It is not a usual approach to the building of life in the Williams household. Dad Richard had his daughters Venus and Serena banging tennis balls virtually from the time they could walk But now he thinks it’s time for a change.
It is not a usual approach to the building of life in the Williams household. Dad Richard had his daughters Venus and Serena banging tennis balls virtually from the time they could walk. But now he thinks it’s time for a change.
Richard Williams comes from a strange school. He believes his daughters should get a good sporting career behind them before they embark on anything as chancy as further education. It seems, however, that the time for blackboard chalk, rather than the baseline equivalent, is rather near. Venus and Serena, 20 and 18 respectively, are already talking about packing it all in.”I’m definitely considering retiring in about five or six years,” Serena said yesterday “My Dad is a man that’s really into education He’d like to see us kids succeed in things off court “We’re trying to go to school. We’re trying to get our little degrees to have something to fall back on.” The $4m (£2.6m) in prize-money the sisters earned between them last year is no bad backstop either.The elder Williams may be easier to accommodate on the campus.
