Pete Sampras, whose record 14 Grand Slam titles underline his status as a tennis legend, appears close to retirement.
His coach, Paul Annacone, announced today Sampras had withdrawn from three tournaments he had been scheduled to play - including Wimbledon where he has won seven of his Grand Slam titles.
"Yes, for me not to be at Wimbledon, I guess that's big," Sampras said from his home in Beverly Hills. "I don't play just to play. I set the bar high and I want to be the best. Right now I just don't have it," the 31-year-old added.
Today, he said he would not be playing on the French Open's clay courts in two weeks, where he rarely impresses, or the grass courts of Queen's Club and Wimbledon in June.
"I'm going to watch some of Wimbledon on TV," Sampras said. "I'll be curious. I won't watch a ton, but it'll be interesting to see how I feel."
Sampras as good as admitted his career was over when he said he was 95 percent close to walking away for good. "It'll all be more clear to me" by the end of the year, he said.
His seventh championship on Wimbledon's grass courts came in 2000 when he beat Australian Patrick Rafter for a 13th Grand Slam title that beat Australian Roy Emerson's record dozen set in 1967.
Sampras beat Rafter after losing the first set and trailing in a second-set tiebreaker 4-1. He then went 33 tournaments without a win over the next two years, ending the drought with an astonishing victory over Andre Agassi in the US Open final last September. That was his last match.
It represented the 762nd tour victory of his 15-year career. He lost 222 matches and won $43,280,489.