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

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

If you read this book AFTER Agassi's Open, you will be disappointed because the tones of the two are totally different. Sampras' books is as Sampras is. I could see why some reviewers said it's boring. Through the book you could see Sampras as the person of who he is: highly disciplined, focused, quiet, and introvert. And that is how the book comes about. Towards the end Sampras seems to come out of his shell some. Reading his autobiography and you will see, understand and appreciate what it takes to remain No. 1 for such a long time. I don't mind the stats at the beginning of each chapter. That just more represents Sampras of who he is, the athlete who's very focused and disciplined in the sports of his choosing. All the data might be boring to some readers, but you get several tips out of the book as a tennis player because here and there he would share his mentality/tactics/strategies of how he played especially against different kinds of players. He even provided his opinions/analysis of each top player in his time. All those represent the book title, A Champion's Mind.

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

• ISBN13: 9780307383303
• Condition: New
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A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis Overview

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

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