Pete Sampras once shared that his toughest challenge during his career came in the final years before his retirement. He said that journalists were blaming his marriage to Bridgette Wilson for his decline in form, which added extra pressure.
Sampras is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Alongside Andre Agassi, he was a key figure in American tennis during the late 1990s. The two had a fierce rivalry and together they won a combined total of 22 Grand Slam titles.
Sampras retired three years before Agassi. The younger American played his last professional match at the 2002 US Open, where he won, but he didn’t officially announce his retirement until a year later.
During a Q&A session with Time in 2008, a fan asked Pete Sampras about the most difficult period of his career. He replied:
“Probably my last couple years on tour. I wasn’t playing well, and I had just gotten married, and the press was on my wife about it–that [I was losing] because I married her. You can attack me all you want, but don’t bring my wife into it.”