Review: A Champion's Mind by Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras for me, is, and always will be the best tennis player there has ever been. He didn't win the French Open but to dominate a sport the way in which he did when there were so many other top quality players was something really special. He was part of the 'Golden Generation' to come out of the USA which featured the likes of Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang and Todd Martin. These players, in another era, could have won much more but for the fact the Sampras was always there.

This autobiography, written with Peter Bodo, is compelling from start to finish and shows you what a professional Sampras was. I like the way that the book goes in chronological order and shows exactly what he had to go through to get to the top of a sport which is both physically and mentally demanding on equal levels. 

Compelling 

When I read a book, I try to go into it blind, which makes the idea of a review redundant for me until afterwards but I cannot recommend this book enough. The way in which he takes absolutely no prisoners when talking about his rivals, the people who helped develop his game, his family and his friends makes for great reading and makes me understand how he performed like he did on a tennis court so many times.

Not the biggest, not the fastest and by no means the strongest, Pete Sampras had a game that any player would crave for, his service and tennis minds made anyone he ever come up against intimidated. He never let his emotion get in the way, to the annoyance of some ex-players and commentators of the game but he tells all in the book on the way he approached the game and his reasoning is completely sound.

Whether you're a fan of his or not, I implore you to give this book your time and see what made the best brain in tennis tick from a young boy without much hope to a worn out professional struggling to keep pace with the young pretenders coming through the ranks, yet always pulling a performance out of the bag, even after he retired.

After reading this and Andre Agassi's 'Open' I have decided to use the framework of these two great players to write my dissertation for university as I feel the way in which these books were written will help me no end with what will be the most important piece of writing in my life so far, and if that is not an endorsement then I don't know what is.

9.5/10